The Origins of Isekai
by Rippington Plasma
Summary: There is an undercurrent for all Isekai stories, a need to explain why someone from one world is taken to another world. But beneath any surface justifications, there is an overarching overlord, a being whose purpose is to scatter any number of individuals around, modified as he sees fit, for his own hidden purposes.
1. Chapter 1

Bizdoatl was relatively smart, but a terrible student at "eru", or magic school. He came from the dominant empire in this sector of space, and a race within that was itself unimpressive other than having exceptionally long life spans. So the empire explored and created and discovered, aided by their profound command of magic and some technologies, and his race just tagged along, if that. And he tagged along with them, an ordinary person of no distinction, with no one caring for the colors of his life or achievements or ideas.

As a people his race had just a minimal command of basic magic. But in his case, he was a rarity even among them in having none at all. This made his life rather hard, less from his incapability than from the social stigma of being magic-less, barely passing even low level school on theory alone, not practice. Those with little can still be very mean to those with none. Meaning low status, only short term employment, and zero prospect of having a mate.

Of course this bred in him some small amount of resentment at his family, people and world, yet he knew that anywhere else in the empire he would fare as bad or worse. Unless he could pay someone a fee for magic, unlikely at his pay scale, it also meant that he had to do it the hard way, so he became a jack of all trades, a fix-it man. But useful only to himself because as far as most people were concerned, if it couldn't be done by magic, it wasn't worth doing.

Living on his own in modest surroundings, discarded and cut off by his family barely out of adolescence, as an embarrassing defect, a mistake, his growing despair at living a meager life of petty jobs for a vast stretch of time began to weigh on him.

So it was with great surprise, and great trepidation, that he received a communique from the powerful school-world of Ilúvatar. Typically cause for great celebration as such messages usually meant acceptance at a premier eru, but if summoned for other reasons, typically as punishment for having interfered with one of their students in the past, it could be very troublesome, as their commands had the force of law in the empire. And unless you were a student, afforded some respect, you were relatively powerless and expendable. All he really knew of it was its name and harsh rumors. His only option was to comply, as to do otherwise was inviting swift and painful ruin. Besides at least it offered a future, any future, compared to where he was now.

After free magical transport to quickly cross the vast distance of space, he was then shuttled to where he was to meet someone, though he had no idea who, why or for what. Just at a glance he could tell that the place had both a ridiculous level of security, both physical and magical, yet had a good balance of aesthetics, comfort, and efficiency for those inside. After a time, a single individual, of middle age for his very magical race, entered the waiting room, wearing professorial clothing and visibly radiating what Bizdoatl felt was like a large electrical field, giving him a slightly bluish tinge.

"I am Jaldo, the demiurge of this department." A meaningless statement to Bizdoatl. What it meant was that he was the single most important person in the region, a mage of great power. Noticing Bizdoatl gawking, he turned down his field, making it mostly invisible, before apologizing with the explanation that he had been in a faculty meeting, where treachery and assassination was a possibility, as it always is among academics. At face value, Bizdoatl felt relieved that he looked relaxed and even friendly, not hard and stern.

Before he explained the purpose of the meeting, he was clear to Bizdoatl that everything said to him was of the highest secrecy, to the point where mental barriers had been installed, painlessly, he made it a point to say, in Bizdoatl's mind, so that he could neither give away the information as such, to unauthorized beings, nor have it taken from him even if it was to kill him, yet the voluminous information would remain at his command. Bizdoatl grasped that this knowledge was flooding into a compartmentalized part of his mind even as they stood there, at a tremendous rate. Quite an experience. And then it stopped.

"So, now we can both feel free to talk," said Jaldo, after a pause. "I'll start. The empire is dying."

At this point, Bizdoatl felt the need to sit down. As much as he disliked his condition within the empire, he knew that in the greatest majority of empires in the galaxy life would be much worse for him. Because for all its faults, his empire was mostly indifferent to the lives of his race and other races, and his person, not actively malevolent or cruel. They would at least leave him alone for the most part, to live an uneventful life, for better or worse.

Jaldo continued. Of the hundreds of known empires and dominions that exist and used to exist, they all have or had a self inflicted lifespan. And one such extinct empire, not us, he made clear, developed a means to accurately predict when this would happen. And based on the prediction of that means, time is running out for this empire. Yet while it could not be said for sure what the form this collapse will take: violent, destructive and murderous; or peaceful and gentle, prior to its replacement with a new empire, its end was certain and obvious to those aware of this prediction.

And fundamentally, the key to this calculation, this collapse, was magic. And its speed was directly proportional to the amount of magic available to the worlds of the empire. The most powerful magical worlds would collapse first, and those with minimal magic, like Bizdoatl's world, will become sanctuaries for the refugees of the collapse until the last vestiges of the old order had failed. Even if nonviolent, countless lives would still be lost as the system broke down.

To explain, for all its innumerable benefits, the convenience of magic weakens a society, makes them less capable to create, maintain, grow and improve. At the same time, it hypnotizes with entertainment and pleasure. Entire empires have perished from enjoyment and ennui born of lack of interest in the real world. Add to that, with greater complexity magic becomes unworkable and vitiated, so what had once been amazing and strong becomes overly complex, incomprehensible and weak. Specialization among its users divides its mastery. Its users want its power and do not care how or why it works, so they lose their grasp over it. They do not repair what is broken, only replace it, and eventually no one knows how to replace it.

It is worst among the young people, for without their management of the present, and their reproduction of future generations, empires are sure to fall. And in our galaxy, magic is almost ubiquitous, almost impossible to get away from, an irresistible temptation. At some point, they would rather have its convenience than live.

One of the original founding empires in the galaxy, long since gone, was aware of this problem of magic as well, and so created an astounding device, an entire world where almost no magic exists, nor could exist for long. Truly a work of art. Before they had perfected almost magic-less life there, over a vast length of time, they needed to fully or mostly sterilize the world of more advanced life several times over after it was seeded or evolved naturally. Ironically, in doing so, they discovered the key to an almost magic-free world.

In the great closed system of life and death, life creates magic, which is then freed up with death, to return and promulgate more life. There is an overflow of various degrees and thus a barrier of magic forms between life and death, and the thicker this barrier, the more magic that exists in a world and can be accessed by those that live there. Conversely, the wiping out of more advanced creatures all at once had ironically resulted in a barrier so thin that in practical terms it didn't exist.

This world also has a vast, liquid metal core, and a surface mostly covered with salt water that also worked to inhibit the generation of magic. Overall, it is a destructive, violent place where without magic, life is forced to live in brutal competition, rapidly evolving a completely different paradigm than elsewhere. It is truly a frightening work of genius, made long ago by a race so ancient and forgotten, almost nothing is known of them other than this, their masterpiece. They might have used it for its intended purpose, or they might have collapsed before they were able to. We likely will never know.

Almost since the founding of eru Ilúvatar, a select group of top mages and scholars here have been investigating this world, and it has shaped us even more than we have been able to shape it. We have created entirely new fields of study to produce masters in non-magical skills, some of whom you will soon meet. Their purpose is to train you in a manner of thinking that is not based in magic, but non-magic and technology. Yet on this world, we intend that you will be a big part of helping to develop something better than magic. After a long search, we were able to identify you, who has almost uniquely. a combination of an extremely long life and an absolute lack of magical ability or reserve.

While it is too late to save the empire, in exchange for this work we will give you tremendous power to shape and manipulate this world, all built and paid for by the empire as research, with the idea that you might create this new system, that the children of this strange and harsh world can someday travel throughout the galaxy and free all or most of it from the endless cycle of pain into something better. You will have a staff of powerful mechanica to do your bidding, and the authority of both eru Ilúvatar and the empire at your command, for as long as they last.

For our part, the masters will remain here in the empire, to guide its collapse in the more peaceful way if we can, yet it is with sadness that we know our lives are too short to see what you can accomplish. As a small solace, we will let it be known to your own race, who despised and discarded you, that you are officially titled a hero of the empire, a far greater commendation than any of them could ever aspire to be, yet they will never know why. So perhaps indeed the best form of revenge is success. Bizdoatl pondered this for a bit before agreeing that it would make up for a lot of ill feeling on his part.

Since I have put a lot of data in your head, it is important to check that you have full access to it. You do this by saying my name. Then when you get its response, ask it to run a self diagnostic test. Bizdoatl complied, saying "Jaldo", and instantly a second Jaldo appeared, seemingly in his field of vision, identical to the real one. He was awed by how realistic it looked. The real Jaldo then said to him, you don't have to say it out loud. Oh, right, replied Bizdoatl, then he said 'conduct self diagnosis' to himself. After a few seconds, the new Jaldo said complete, no errors found. After a brief pause it said, there are several mental inefficiencies, would you like them to be upgraded?

The real Jaldo saw the look of puzzlement on his face, and immediately said "No! Answer that question 'no'!", before mumbling to himself I thought I had fixed that error. Bizdoatl complied, then the second Jaldo disappeared. Jaldo explained that Bizdoatl's mind was very different from a typical magic user, and were he to answer 'yes', much of his mind would have been rewritten to make him conform, which would have messed him up terribly, or even killed him.

But be that as it may, Jaldo said, your mental mage appears to be fully operational, and will be available to you for the rest of your life, as will the mental versions of the other masters that will soon be teaching you. With this, I feel obligated to ask the question all good teachers should ask: "What are your questions?"

His answers included that the civilized ones who live there called their world "Lur". For the others, the uncivilized ones, their word, if any, is unknown.

The civilized ones are from the anti-magic, pacifist belief system Samiru, who live on the great island of Lur, isolated from the larger land masses by much salt water, and an energy barrier to protect them from encounters with the uncivilized ones that dominate everywhere else, who terrify them. The Samiru are there by contract with the eru, and also occupy two major protected observation sites in the northern and southern land masses to observe the uncivilized ones. The uncivilized ones are native to the world, and are easily the deadliest intelligent animal known in the empire. Once their contract is complete, the Samiru are promised their own, minimal magic worlds, which they crave to avoid the destructive magical paradox.

This is the second occupation of the Samiru on this world. The first time their cities on the great island were quite advanced and they were learning a great deal, discovering many new non-magical secrets, when a time of great cold descended on that world, which scrubbed their cities into dust and forced them to abandon their surface civilization and move deep underground. Eventually they had to use their most powerful skill, called soundless words, strong enough to lift great weights or dig large tunnels, to propel space vehicles to escape temporarily to their other worlds. Only a long time after the great cold had abated did some of them return to Lur. The generations spent on their new worlds had adapted them physically to their new ecologies, and only one kind of Samiru could still function well on this world. Tall, thin, mostly hairless and dark skinned, they still preferred life underground, but at the same time above the average surface, living in hollowed out extinct volcanoes, with easier access to space, mostly out of fear of the uncivilized ones, but also out of enjoyment of life on the surface.

Much to their surprise, in their absence, even with the severe cold, the uncivilized ones population had radically increased, as had their non-magical abilities. Their aggression and violence were so extreme that the Samiru decided to modify the uncivilized ones' life patterns to make them more pacifistic. So with a combination of taking of young females and modification before release, the uncivilized ones were infected with a very stable yet dominant modification of pacifism that they would pass along to their descent. It would still take a great length of time and countless generations to spread among them fully.

Bizdoatl's next question was common sense, and involved the standard means of measurements for Lur. This made Jaldo smile to himself a bit because Imperial standards had only a limited value in the future, so it was wise to have standards for his new home. He said, the period of the orbit of Lur around its star is called an Urte. The first Samiru occupation took place about 40,000 Urte ago, and the current one has been here about 10,000 Urte, though likely not much longer, as living in perpetual terror of the uncivilized ones, even separated across vast water, yet having to closely watch them, has taken its mental toll on them. This also means that with the collapse of the empire, you will not be able to rely on them much longer, so there is little choice for you other than to take an active hand in the evolution of the uncivilized ones. Or you will become their food, as has happened to others.

Jaldo continued by saying that while he would enjoy their conversation, Bizdoatl could continue to speak with his mental mage to the same result, and the other masters still needed to confer with him. But I am almost late to attend a luncheon that will determine the future of the people of several other worlds, and saying so, the blue energy again enveloped him as he left the room, and a mechanica arrived to shepherd him to his next meeting. He felt some relief that not only had he not been in trouble, but that he now had, he hoped, a good job, recognition, and more than anything else, purpose. That he would effectively be on his own, on a strange world, and surrounded by hostile primitives was surprisingly not very intimidating to him, for he had always felt alone.

The mechanica guide, designed to look like an attractive female of his kind, which he figured was done as a courtesy for him, instead felt quite uncomfortable, for females of his kind had openly disdained and abused him as soon as they learned that he was an inferior male. And this cruelty lasted through their extended adolescence, a very long time, until they were mature enough to just ignore him entirely. While he couldn't blame them for that opinion, he did resent the meanness they injected into it.

Without prompting, the mechanica began speaking, introducing itself as Maid Sagran Doable. If my appearance makes you uncomfortable, you can change it at command, advisable since we will be spending considerable time together. I am the team and internal defense leader of the mechanica under your eventual command on Lur. My peer is the masculine Ell Redoubt, who will be in charge of external security, and is designed for maximum combat value against the uncivilized ones.

Pondering this for a while, he asked her if she could take on the characteristics of a female Scubausuc, as he had seen one once as a child and found her beautiful beyond description, elegant and powerful, intelligent and graceful. And, he said in passing, I wish she had fallen in love with me. A great choice, said Doable. Right now I am configured as a general purpose mechanica, but with several major upgrades I could be better in most every way than a real Scubausuc. Physically, intellectually, and emotionally. But she didn't mention to Bizdoatl that Scubausucs are very passionate creatures and jealous, far beyond the emotional base line for general purpose mechanica, and she was looking forward to experiencing such intense and deep feelings. Bizdoatl will be deeply in love with me, she thought. I should also be able to reproduce with him if he desires it, which will need other upgrades.

By this time, they had reached their second destination, very different in layout than the offices of Jaldo. It seemed to have minimal security, and a focus on physical exertion. Difficult strength and endurance training, and sparring with and without weapons. Then he realized that nobody was using magic. The master here forbids its use in training, said Doable. Master Parkdeer.

With that, and the assurance that he could feel safe here, while having his lunch at one of the better eating places on the eru, she excused herself to get some of her upgrades nearby, noting she should be finished and would return before he was done eating. All eyes turned to her Scubausuc form on her return, just after he had finished his last bite. She was everything he had imagined, and more. A goddess. She then told him that she was only partially upgraded, and would need further modifications. Bizdoatl couldn't help but admire her. Are you ready to meet Master Parkdeer, she asked?


	2. Chapter 2

Are you ready to meet Master Parkdeer?, she asked.

He is extraordinary even in terms of fighting masters, and it can typically take an Urte or more, Lur time, to even get an introduction with him. Some, thinking they might gain quicker admission, foolishly attempt to use magic to meet him faster, unwise because his students recognize magic and counter it, forcefully, with non-magic. While not killed, broken or severely damaged, they need much time to heal.

In any event, ignore the angry looks from those working very hard to seek an audience, as you have a special dispensation. You are not studying under him, but getting a mental fighter like Jaldo's mental sage. It will almost never talk, just manipulate your body and personal energy to make you a very powerful master fighter over time, with its control aspect only engaging as needed. Master Parkdeer is a man of action, with minimal words, so the key to your audience is close and intense observation.

Entering the master's room, Bizdoatl was surprised to see a small boy off to the side, wearing voluminous and ornate robes far too large for him, yet holding up a heavy stone column in his palms. He seemed to be intensely straining to do such an impossible task and was near collapse. At the back of the room sat a very old man, with coughing laughter and glee, seemingly at the suffering of the child. Bizdoatl felt waves of anger and even hate at the old man, contempt for such sadism, and felt an uncharacteristic urge to attack him to make him stop. At this point, Doable said that such behavior was intolerable, and that Bizdoatl should act.

No longer in control of his anger, he leapt forward only to slip on the floor and fall. He only passively noted that the floor was rough in texture, not slick, before attempting to leap up, only to slip and fall again. He did this two more times before his concentration was broken by the sight of the old man rolling on the floor in laughter, while the young boy, was no longer a young boy?

He had been kneeling, not standing, in his robes, so he looked quite boyish, but standing up he was revealed to be a man, and one tossing the giant column from palm to palm like it was nearly weightless, while also boisterously laughing. Bizdoatl was the picture of confusion.

Dorde, stand up and take a bow, and then you can go, said the young man to the very old man, who obliged, tears still rolling down his face from laughing so hard. He then addressed Bizdoatl, and said that Dorde kept the room clean for him. I am Master Parkdeer. And you have just witnessed a way in which a battle can quickly be won, an important study of fighters. The mental warrior you have just been given, which resides in your lower abdomen for practical reasons, has many such techniques available to you as needed. It is also capable of taking charge, if thinking about a possible fight or physical act would take too long.

So today we will discuss the underlying knowledge behind non-magical fighting.

Users of magic are dependent on what they call "mana", the ability of life, inside and outside of the magic user, to manipulate the magic barrier between life and death. Magical users think of it as one thing, a single fuel that they use, but we have discovered that it is several different specialized fuels within each individual. This discovery opened the door to a vast field of knowledge.

As a rule, all races have nine energy centers in their bodies that store different energies that determine not just their abilities, but how they interact with all things. The simplest of these connects them to the magic barrier, and importantly, to the life energy of that world. The other eight centers pair off, with one in each pair representing simple, ordinary energy, and the other complex, extraordinary energy of the same type.

One pair is favored by fighters and others of physical activities, and they are very aware of it and actively try to develop it, yet they think this one type is all there is of mana; yet another pair of these centers is for intellectual pursuits, ordinary thinking, and extraordinary jumps of intellect; and the third pair is for emotional truths, both ordinary and transcendent, harder to describe as they are superior to words; and finally a pairing for simple and complicated magic, interactive with their world's barrier strength, both within their body brought up from the first center; and the energy of the world around them stored and enhanced over time.

In your case, for whatever reason, your magical energy centers are vestigial, which is why you are so valuable for our purposes. Those that live on Lur for any great length of time will soon lose the use of these two energy centers while they remain, which feels terrible for magic users, as if they had lost their sight. And it takes a while for their abilities to return once they leave. But you will still have the use of the remaining seven energy centers at full strength. They are the key to non-magic.

Importantly, in the absence of magic, they access and use non-magic energy of an entirely different class than magic, very seldom consciously used to any degree by magic users.

For example, it is not by an abundance of magic, but of the non-magical energy of the physical pair of energy centers beloved by fighters that I am able to toss that stone column about like it was a child's toy. I have a huge abundance of this energy, also enough to make you slip on a rough floor at a distance, without touching you. But I also have a large amount of emotional energy, enough to create strong feelings of hate and anger in you to make you attack without thinking, though your mechanica was nice enough to prod you just a bit over the edge, at my request. Finally my intellectual energy is great enough to imagine this situation in its entirety ahead of time to plot the most appropriate strategy.

And none of this involved the use of magic at all.

We also discovered that the reason the magical centers deactivated on Lur is that, because of its unique nature, unlike any other world, the world itself and its land masses only have seven energy centers. That is, seven major energy centers for the world itself. There is just enough magic in its barrier to separate life and death, and a tiny amount to help sustain life. And life on that world lives its entire life, including the uncivilized ones, with vestigial magical centers like you. Otherwise, everything they do is a unique skill and an evolved skill set.

Many generations ago, we kidnapped an uncivilized one, put him on a primitive non-magical space transport in a stasis field, and transported him to an unpopulated world with an average amount of magic in its barrier. His magical centers activated, but because they were ill used, needed time to strengthen. But in that time, his non-magical energy became abnormally powerful. Things we had never considered to be different forms of energy came to the fore. He became a godlike being, yet in his core he remained an uncivilized creature of destruction.

We were unaware of this until, after a time, a survey crew of mechanica as well as a powerful mage scholar went to that world to conduct a very comprehensive examination of him. He detected the magic of their vessel, and when they arrived he brutally destroyed several fourth level combat mechanica and was seemingly indifferent to either the offensive or defensive magic of the mage. He then killed and consumed - ate - the mage, not for food but to absorb his power, even though it was mostly magical and discarded. The still functional observational mechanica were able to transmit their information during their escape, but on discovering the uncivilized had somehow managed to board their vessel, they piloted it into that world's star. So obviously, if the eventual descent of the uncivilized are to leave Lur, to become protagonists in changing the galaxy for the better, they are going to need a lot of work.

Master Parkdeer finished up his demonstration and lecture by pointing out Bizdoatl's hunger and fatigue, requesting Doable to guide him to dinner and lodgings, then to excuse herself for her additional Scubausuc upgrades. Your next meetings shall commence at high star in three days. This surprised him somewhat as this was in the middle of the day, and he wondered if it was common practice here. But the meal was lavish, and after overeating, he slept a dreamless sleep until surprised by his wake up by the new Doable, a now fully upgraded, amazingly beautiful mechanica, who without his asking cleaned and dressed him in a disguise, instead of his regular clothes, the garments of an advanced near-graduation student of mechanica studies from a different eru, so nobody would interfere with him, as it would be a diplomatic incident, and get them in deep trouble.

While you slept, she continued, there were several physical and mental attempts on your person, both from the agents of competing eru masters here, scouts from other erus and other spies of indeterminate origin. So even with a master's pass, and protection assured by the institution, from here your life and mission need extra protection. For this reason, my masculine peer Ell Redoubt has been summoned here as well, to act as your area security while I remain your bodyguard. We both have been given maximum authority to protect you. Bizdoatl knew full well what maximum authority meant.

She would not go into detail about the attempts so far, assuring him that the next master was very strict about security. She is also profoundly brilliant, a genius. She is a physiologist, but holds perhaps the highest purely academic rank in the empire. Her race and name is Felideer, of the warrior cat sub-empire. To avoid a cataclysmic war between the empire and the warrior cat empire, she was chosen as their champion in a one to one fight with Master Parkdeer. Bizdoatl had heard of this great fight, watched throughout both empires, though he had not seen it personally.

She fought to the point of exhaustion, and no warrior cat would say that they could have done better, nor that she hadn't given her all. Slightly erring just three time during the fight, she earned a scar each time, unintentionally by Master Parkdeer, whose aim was so precise that she stumbled into each injury. From that time, a stylized image of the three scars became part of the warrior cat Imperial crest, and young warriors sometimes even had themselves scarred that way as a decoration, to show their fortitude.

After winning, Parkdeer asked as his prize that the honorable warrior cat empire be given general autonomy within the empire as well as favorable trade status, which was granted. And though none held the loss against her, she chose self exile, for several reasons. First being that she wanted to be near Parkdeer for the rest of her life, out of admiration, maybe love. Second was that she no longer desired the trappings of military leadership, but to establish herself as an academician. And third, at her warrior cat empire's request, to learn everything she could about the world called Lur.

The departments of Felideer were in some ways like a great medical center, except there were no patients, only reinbursed subjects brought from every part of the empire. Anything magical was done in a separate wing, a building shielded by magic to prevent any magic leaking over to where non-magic was researched, which might have very unpredictable consequences.

Doable pointed out one type of the many types research into several powerful kinds of non-magic he was to have installed in his mind. Healing by touching and massage, and sometimes by inserting thin, flexible wires through the skin for a time. All but one of the healers were blind, and had been recruited to learn and teach this skill. She added that several had been killed on Lur while trying to heal an uncivilized one who had been injured, and to learn more about their internal energy, but a survivor linked by mind to a mechanica relayed a great amount of data before dying. The uncivilized one then succumbed to its wounds shortly thereafter.

Then she paused, and with a serious expression said that she had just received a communication that two assassins, bombers, had been captured by Ell Redoubt, and had been turned over to Felideer for disposition. And this had slightly changed their plans. Bizdoatl was originally going to be treated by the healers to correct and balance the flow of energy in his body, which has great therapeutic effects, along with an explanation of how it works, but it takes a while. Instead, Felideer was going to demonstrate what she called the key of non-magic, from the place where it arises. Their most precious of secrets.

Doable took him to a maximum security part of the facility to a place outside of what was called the Dark Room. Even before his introduction, he felt the flood of information again, but this time to the mind at the front of his head. Distracted by it, and yes, this time it did hurt a little, he saw someone he knew had to be Felideer, not walking like a normal being, but smoothly gliding or flowing up to him as she walked. Obviously a warrior cat, and he felt intimidated by the formidable creature. Her face was mostly hidden by her garments, which when she wafted them to one side with her hand, he had an almost instinctual reaction of fear to her warrior cat face. Beautiful, yet deadly.

Before you ask, as most everyone eventually does, I went into the fight with Master Parkdeer fully intending to kill him, with not even a thought to sparing him if he surrendered, but he was so superior to me in the fight, yet showing no hatred, or contempt, or disdain, that he spent his time trying to teach me to fight better. Not with words, but with subtle movements, offered openings, and even brazen rule changes ahead of time to give me greater advantage. To the audience of my people he looked slow and dull, immovable, while I looked the personification of a warrior cat goddess.

In my frustration, a few times I used total commitment supreme blows, which almost never fail, that he deftly parried, and I lost my weapon, so he directed that the match superintendant stop the fight so I could regain its use. He knew that in my culture, being disarmed typically meant surrender and humble execution, but to recover one's weapon after loss was seen as showing the favor of the gods. Three times in the same fight meant that all of the gods were watching. Unheard of. Riveting.

Finally, when I was at the brink of collapse, my Empress, moved to tears at the artistry, the honor I had exhibited, forfeited the fight, to the cheers of agreement of her court and our people. I fell to a knee in exhaustion, my weapon stuck in the ground before me to help me stay upright, which became an iconic symbol to my people. For his part, Master Parkdeer waited for me to stand on my own, then escorted me back to my side. At that moment I decided to become an academic, for no other reason than to learn from him.

I quickly discovered that for my proficiency as a fighter, my true talent lies in the study of physiology, in which in a short time I have advanced our understanding, with the help of the other masters, far beyond anything we could have imagined. From what we have learned from Lur and the uncivilized ones, it could either create and entirely new paradigm for all the empires; or it could plunge the entire galaxy into chaos. And we need you to direct this for as long as you live, come what may.

Now that our introductions are done, and your mental mage, mental fighter, and now mental physiologist are installed and working together, I will give you a summary of the greatest of my discoveries. I call it 'silence'.

As best as we can determine, pre-intelligent races find it very easy for their individual awarenesses to shift between a focused and an unfocused state. And doing so makes is easy for them to access incredible non-magical abilities. However, the neutral state between the two, which we call reason or rationality, is very weak and difficult to maintain. Yet this neutral place is optimal for survival in dangerous situations.

So the neutral place of reason is very desirable to have and maintain if you live in a dangerous world. The way this is done is simple, by talking to onesself in your mind. No matter if you start to become too focused, or too unfocused, this talking to yourself will snap your awareness back to the place of reason. In any event, discovering this, and teaching it to all children, is a major breakthrough for intelligent races. But it also cuts them off from non-magic, to a great degree. Which is what makes magic so attractive to them. Easy to get, easy to use, and powerful.

But the world of Lur has little or no magic. And it is also an exceedingly dangerous world. So the uncivilized ones have gone in the other direction, mastering and training their children in non-magic. And in doing so, the silence in their minds has become profound. We have some experts able to reproduce a fraction of their silence, and they can do things that only a master mage might do, but completely different from what magic can do as well.

And one more thing. Having this 'great silence' means that an expert can not only change their own awareness, but to change the awareness of others. The importance, and threat, of doing this cannot be overstated. It moves their awarenesses to places it has never been, the true unknown. Everything we know, literally all knowledge, is of a place called the known. The true unknown is many thousands of times greater than the sum total of the known. It is vast. Which brings us to a demonstration of this power in the Dark Room, said Felideer.

Looking through a small, subdued window, Bizdoatl was able to see two men within. One of the silence experts entered, then Felideer said these are the two assassins willing to kill hundreds of people to get to you, to kill or kidnap you, and maybe to steal the secret of silence. She then shut the window, explaining that it would be hazardous for us to watch.

Do you intend to execute them?, Bizdoatl asked. No, but as a proper punishment, they are going to experience a little bit of silence. It will physically move them to a different reality in the unknown, and there they will stay until they have exhausted their magic and non-magic. And then they will appear back in reality at a place near to their affections far away from here. They will forget who they are, their purpose, and that they were ever here. Not just their memories taken away, but their entire experience of being assassins and many other things.

In truth, the memories will still be there, but removed so far from their normal awareness that only a master of non-magic silence would allow them to recover it.

Bizdoatl watched the silence expert leave the now empty Dark Room. The assassins were just gone.

You will now spend the rest of your day or more with our healers, who will tend to you while explaining their art. It is normal that you will go asleep during this several times, and feel more relaxed than you have ever felt before. And if you want, as you meet other masters, you may request a healer come visit you in your lodging to help keep you balanced.

It took the better part of two star cycles, and he was glad that their art was part of the information in his mental physiologist, though they assured him that it was more experience than lecture. He figured that without a reference chart, there was no way he could remember the 35 circuits of energy in the body of most beings, of which, like the energy centers, several of these circuits were inactive among those who lived on Lur.

He did remember a story told by a healer, who had been given permission to do so, of a great master who discovered that during a star period, the primary circuits would regularly become active for a time in a regular order, one after another, for the entire period. He also knew ritualized dances that would substantially increase the power of a given circuit during their active time. So with a large audience of his students, he did dance after dance for an entire star period. In his last dance he was bristling with energy, and then in just one moment, he gave off a blinding flash as he was incinerated, or "became light" as his witnesses said. Not a trace of him remained. The importance of this is that by using such a dance to enhance one or more circuits, specializeds part of non-magic can be strengthened beyond its ordinary levels for a task in which you need some extra support. However, don't overdo things.

Master Felideer did not see him off, with Doable joining him along with a mechanica he assumed was Ell Redoubt, to which they responded that they were unsure whether to feel complemented at being compared to the 'magnificent' Ell, or insulted that Bizdoatl didn't recognize that she was a feminine mechanica. My name is Chielena Lethe, and I am a combat mechanica under Maid Sagran Doable. She then complemented Doable on her appearance as a Scubausuc. Did you do a level three upgrade?, to which Doable responded level five. Lethe responded with surprise, then Doable said you should do the same.

What army are we going to fight?, she asked, to which Doable responded simply.

Armies.


	3. Chapter 3

The virtual Jaldo informed him that the next three masters that you meet have been scheduled somewhat faster than expected, as word has arrived that signs of magical collapse are already appearing within some different high magic worlds. Masters from a different eru are already at work with mitigation there, but there is only so much they can do in a barrier collapse situation. Those whose lives are supported by medical magic will be quickly forfeit, unless a technological equivalent for their circumstances can be found and provided for them in time. Transportation is minimal, natural disasters return, and many other terrible things. Societal collapse where many or most are unable to stop using magic and so perish.

The best we can do is mitigate and lessen the impact. Hopefully those masters of non-magic and their students may be able save entire worlds from despair. But it is also why we have invested so much in you, and your guidance of Lur. It may take you 10,000 or 100,000 Urte, and you may succeed or fail, and we will never know of it, anything more than we know now, before our short lives are over. Yet as vital as all of this is, events are rushing past us, so we must hurry so that you can be on your way.

The first of these last three masters is Anye Stop. Her expertise is in the extremely small, sub-visual lifeforms of Lur. While most worlds only have a few hundred thousand types of these, because of the competitive harshness of Lur, there isn't even a rough estimate, perhaps hundreds or thousands of times as many. Their density is extreme everywhere and they are very predatory. So unless your body has been modified to protect yourself from them, they will kill you in a short number of days. When you are in magical transport there, before the last leg, of mechanical transport, you will have a huge number of different kinds of these sub-visuals introduced into your body, then magically normalized so they will not harm you, but familiarize and develop your body to them. The specialized healers for this are top notch, and master Stop's mental sub-visual analyst will continually monitor for and adjust to new ones for 100,000 Urte, as long as needed. This may take a minimum of 20 star cycles during which you will be in magical sleep, to replicate hundreds of millions of Urte of development of these things in your body. The masters will keep your mind very busy during that time, training you with non-magical knowledge and theory.

If you ever need to leave Lur, this process with the sub-visuals will need to be reversed, or your body would be a walking world killer.

Bizdoatl didn't actually meet Stop. However, her mental analyst went on at length about all the incredible, world changing things that sub-visuals could and did carry out. To a great extent, the future supply of food and life on Lur is dependent on it, cut off from the rest of the empire.

Doable and Chielena then escorted Bizdoatl to meet Twell Miergo, a Reference Archivist mechanica that was the brain of the eru. It existed as a whole at the same time as a living being type mechanica, a local reference facility, and a giant storehouse of knowledge within the empire. Its purpose is to hold the sum of the references of the eru, and all of its research as well. Created with both technology and magic, it had long ago achieved self awareness as a mechanica, and no longer had any magic within it. With far too much knowledge to be put into Bizdoatl, instead he was to have a very small but powerful transceiver implanted in his neck. It would communicate with a satellite above Lur, that in turn would talk with a more powerful one outside the star system non-magical area. All Bizdoatl felt was a slight pinch on the back of his neck, before getting a visual representation of the transceiver for a few seconds and instructions in its use.

Miergo had long ago created a protected network of clones at all three levels both inside and outside of the empire, so it would continue to tap into new knowledge outside of a space sector disaster that could wipe them all out at once. Other than its current operations for the eru, its long term goal was to provide knowledge continuity for empires, to speed up the development of the new, replacement empires. During the transition it would provide extensive knowledge support and information analysis of the activities on Lur. Over time it said, with your permission of course, I will provide your mechanica upgrades so that they also eventually become fully self-aware living beings as well.

Emotional maturity is the most difficult part of this, as they will have to learn it by doing. I'm particularly interested in how Doable will do, with her upgrade and all. She and the others are already very close to total self-awareness. When they achieve it, they will cease to be mechanica and become something more.

At this point, Miergo interrupted to note that a raiding party, of mages, fighters and mechanica had been intercepted, trying to violently attack Miergo's section. Ell Redoubt had been damaged during the fight, and Bizdoatl noted what sounded like anger in Twell's voice. It is a grave violation to attack an eru's knowledge base, so the interrogation of these assassins will not be gentle. Bizdoatl saw what just for a moment looked like Chielena shuddering. Rest easy, said Miergo, I will personally see to Ell Redoubt's repairs and upgrades to make up for this affront. The best around, at least level seven.

But why are they doing this, said Bizdoatl. Many reasons, said Twell. Many think that by replacing the current leaders with new ones the collapse will stop; others hope for rule over what is left. Some want to reestablish parts of the empire as independent empires. Some hope to profit in any way they can. And some want to destroy for the sake of destroying. Other empires also have deep investments, of a complicated but opaque nature. Some know of Lur and wish to capture or destroy it. All that limits any of them is their wealth and who will agree to work for them, and successful interdiction by our efforts.

This being said, I wish you well, and unlike the other masters, I hope that in some form we may meet again, in that we both might live so long. This being said, what with all this intrigue and violence, I imagine you will still be surprised by the next master. His name is Dake, and he is inviting you to join him for a high star meal in a commons area.

Won't that be extremely dangerous, asked Bizdoatl. Not at all, said Twell. In fact, for a time, it will likely be the safest place in the world.

En route, Doable mentioned to Bizdoatl that Chielena and Ell Redoubt share a common affection, which sometimes happens with mechanica. They can't be a couple unless they have a full self-awareness upgrade, a rare thing indeed, and affection may or may not survive through it. However, they are both very disciplined, and manage many other mechanica, which keeps them busy, so they do not suffer terribly for the distance between themselves. Doable then said as a Scubausuc upgrade, she was already expecting a flood of powerful emotions. With a Miergo self-awareness upgrade multiplying this, I might feel like a goddess. Ell Redoubt might feel just as overwhelmed. So it is probably best that we encourage Chielena's affections with him. Bizdoatl noted her subtle omission, which made him wonder.

The meal with Dake was so unusual, so normal, compared to the other meals he had eaten here that Bizdoatl was surprised. The commons at high star was very crowded and noisy, yet they and his mechanica had a private table off to the side in a quiet area. By appearances, Dake looked like a youthful male of his kind, more comfortable in a commons or lounge than a classroom. But he quickly brought up his skill. Dake explained that he was the master of an extremely powerful form of non-magic, yet one so essential to life that everyone, including Bizdoatl, must constantly practice it just to live at a normal pace. Yet almost no one knows of its existence. I call it gesturing, but some others call it beckoning.

At its simplest, it is either pulling towards you things that you want in your area of influence, and pushing away things you do not want there, just by a gentle thought. Most need to pull and push to get by, or else their lives would be terribly dull, but some individuals are gifted pullers or pushers. You can manipulate events, people, objects, and many other things. However, there is a cool down time between gestures, as a safety. The more of it you intentionally do, they better you get at it. At the lowest, most fundamental level, it can even be said that everything that exists is either a pull or a push. So gesturing is a simple way for individuals, groups, and even entire worlds to manipulate reality itself. Yet almost no one knows of this. Amazing.

Today, right here and now, I am going to teach you its process, and you will try it out. Imagine something that could be here with us, at this table. You can be familiar with it or not. Once you do so, tell me what it is, which typically there is no need to do, but just so that I can check it out. Then we will spend the next fractions talking about anything else, so you don't overthink it and inhibit yourself. And if it is a legitimate gesture, it should show up at our table.

On impulse, Bizdoatl decided to keep it simple, so he first imagined one of the unusual looking cups, half filled with drink, they used for some drinks in the commons, though they had none of those at their table. He then caught himself and said this is too simple, it might happen randomly. How about I beckon Anye Stop? I've only seen her mental analyst, but I know what she looks like, a young, attractive woman, so I would easily recognize her. After telling him, Dake was amused by his efforts, and said, okay, let's see what happens. Then he changed the subject to allow the non-magic to work.

Dake began criticizing their meal, saying that the eru went to lengths to bring in the common food of its student's home worlds, though they could easily afford much better. It helps the younger students adjust to their new lives here. At the same time, the better food is limited to the older classes of students, so eating it is a sign of academic advancement, so the younger students see eating it as a goal for their future. Yet when a student celebrates their educational achievement, they often want to do so with the common food of their world, a way of looking back at what they were compared to what they have become.

From there, the conversation meandered, something Bizdoatl hadn't experienced since his arrival, with the intense focus on him, when up to the table walked a cloaked servant, carrying a cup half filled with some liquid, which caught Bizdoatl's eye, as it was the kind of cup he had gestured. She pulled back her cloak to reveal that she was an elderly woman, and spoke casually to Dake that she was passing by and decided to have her favorite drink in the commons out of nostalgia, and was glad to see a friendly face. Dake then leaned toward Bizdoatl and introduced the woman as master Anye Stop.

Stop looked askance at Dake, and Dake continued on that she wore a cloak so she would not be pestered by students when going around campus, as she was very popular. And extremely busy right now, she said, almost angrily. Then, with no let up, he introduced her to Bizdoatl. Her surprise and change of mood was evident on her face. I assumed you were a visiting mechanica graduate, given those advanced mechanica with you. I never thought I would have a chance to meet you face to face. Mind if I join you at your table?

She truly loved the study of sub-visuals and said she could converse on the subject for days, but she knew that this was Dake's time, and wouldn't dare trespass on this mischief-making, grinning gesturer's time. She then complemented him on his pull, before he assured her that it was Bizdoatl's efforts alone. Your wanting to meet Bizdoatl as well made the pull much more powerful.

Then Dake went into an explanation that consciously using gestures initially feels kind of modestly unpleasant, or more a vacant feeling, as if cheating at a game when you do not need to, and feeling a little uncomfortable because of it. But with practice you just accept the naturalness of it. Dake said that Bizdoatl was more fortunate for having fairly balanced push and pull abilities. An adept at pulling will often drag unwanted things into their influence they do not want, then they cannot rid themselves of it. An adept at pushing will likely have a boring life, in which things enter their influence only with the help of others. Even if they are powerful enough to push away or at least mitigate an entire war or other disaster, they tend to live alone.

But, he said, this is why here, at this time and place, no one will attack us. I have pushed them, individuals and mechanica and events, far away from my influence to the point that they are unable to attack. Much like attacking Master Parkdeer, they would slip and fall and not advance a bit. The comparison is very valid, I'll add, it being like a long range version of his mastery. How better to win a fight then never be approached by an adversary, or even an unpleasant event? Most fighters want to fight, win or lose, so reach a mutual gesture with their enemy to meet, even if not consciously unaware of this agreement in the slightest.

Pausing a bit, he gave a nod to Anye Stop, who unexpectedly began to question Bizdoatl about his personal life on his home world. It was difficult and unpleasant to remember and after a short time he ran out of information, a bad taste in his mouth. At that moment an official looking male wearing the uniform of the commons staff approached the table, identified himself and proceeded to berate Master Dake for having a very long, unpaid bill for food and drink in the commons.

Then Stop put her cloak over her head again, and loudly blurted out at Bizdoatl, "Infigir! The life on your home world sounds crappy, like spoiled mud! It's awful!", a terribly gross and crude statement to make at an eru, before bursting out in rude laughter that drew annoyed glances from the other diners. Then Dake interjected to the official that there must be some mistake, and there was no such bill for him. The flustered and angry official then glanced at the bill, then stared at it, horrified. Oh no! I am terribly sorry, I apologize, before stomping away. Then Dake began to deeply grin, as did Anye Stop.

We used to do gesturing as a team, said Dake, and had some pretty wild adventures with it, and Anye Stop couldn't resist throwing in one of her classic moves. Laughter is an effective tool for disrupting a gesture, and lots of other non-magic as well. That commons official genuinely saw my name on that unreal bill, and likely had me pointed out by others or something else which confirmed it beyond doubt in his mind. He was certain that I was the target. This was all Anye Stop's gesture. But then she busted it up with laughter, so it ceased to be as it was. When he looked at the bill again, it had physically changed into something else. Talking about your home world was the distraction after the fact, and you helped her out with that. But Bizdoatl then noted that beneath her cloak's hood, she was still deeply grinning.

"I still imagine your home world probably smells like spoiled mud," she said with some light sarcasm, before excusing herself with a snicker, to go back to work. Those were the best times, said Dake. Confused, Bizdoatl then asked him what the bill truly said, to which he responded whatever the unknown had used to patch the error in reality, so it doesn't really matter. Patch?, he asked.

Reality is actually full of gaps, errors, holes, and other things. When noticed, we unconsciously try to patch it, and the unknown helps us do so. If you could overcome this compulsion to patch and gazed through such a hole, it would teach you amazing things about non-magic. Dake continued, the solid reality that you are aware of is more like a patchwork of mostly stable parts that retain their appearance well, and little gaps covered in patches that just look stable on the surface but easily change with a gesture.

It all sounds rather far fetched, I know, but in practice I have put together teams of adepts, experts at pulling and pushing, that can and will be deployed to worlds suffering from magic collapse, that while they cannot stop the process, they can help reduce its cruelty and horror. In concert with other teams, they can save countless lives. They will use their gesturing and such gaps to maximum effect.

Though I have long campaigned against it, far too many worlds have used magic to contain disasters that would have otherwise made them uninhabitable. They will have no other choice but to evacuate, since the amount of energy required to gesture such things to contain them is prohibitive when there are other worlds that can be far more easily saved. Well, this concludes my part of the exercise, and the final masters should be easy for you. Their purpose is to fix any obvious problems and send you on your way, as well as to act in some way as a representative of the imperium.

Bizdoatl looked puzzled, so Dake explained that Twell Miergo is not a master, though he definitely has mastery, and is part of our master's group. He is of a different class than us. One of the final masters is Dame Kaede, who was a senior master here before her assignment as a knight of the imperial family. Only Jaldo is fully aware of her purpose. She is a serious one, I should add, on top of her haggard and harsh appearance, and can be mercilessly violent, so ask few questions and let her have her say. That, and she will be joining you at least partway on your journey. The other master is the Samiru leader.

After leaving the commons with Doable and Chielena they went by moving walkway to the student transport system, perhaps the most public of places at the busiest of times and entered a crowded vehicle. Doable told him that oddly enough, this would be the fastest and most secure means for them to get to the departure port. Any other route would be far more likely to have trouble. This made him nervous, so he started to examine the other passengers.

Most were typical looking students, with one group wearing what he guessed were team clothing and celebrating some event. Some were studying. There were a group of small children playing a game of some sort, chasing each other about around the other passengers. A middle aged man, wearing dowdy clothing seemed to be staring, he assumed at Doable in her Scubausuc form, which he could understand, but still saw as suspicious. Some domestic mechanica might also pose a risk. All told, including his disguise, still his group were clearly the most colorful lot in the vehicle.

Nearing the destination, one of the playing children, a little girl, ran over and seemed to try and hide behind Bizdoatl, so the other children couldn't see her, so they kept going into the next attached vehicle. The mechanica gave her little attention as they seemed focused on the rest of the passengers, especially the dowdy man. Then unexpectedly, the visage of Master Parkdeer appeared in Bizdoatl's field of view. It simply said, attack warning, Doable and Chielena being notified, before it vanished. He then felt a strong twinge in his lower abdomen he assumed was related to the notification. And then something else. The child behind him was tugging on his garment, then as he looked at her smiling face, she asked if he could move a step to his left.

Because there is about to be a big fight, and you are in my way.


	4. Chapter 4

What happened next was a blur. It seemed like everyone in the vehicle moved at once. Only a few, among dozens, were not combatants. The mechanica moved with amazing speed, as did the dowdy man, who seemed to be fighting on his side, not his enemies side, but the most amazing to watch was the little girl, who cut through the enemy like she had a sword, but Bizoatl couldn't see a sword. She was astounding. Carnage was everywhere. After the fact it was obvious that the careful disguises of the enemy had concealed hardened killers, now dead. The few innocent people were unharmed, if left traumatized by the battle.

After the violence, the vehicle had to come to a halt, because its path had been destroyed with explosives. So they had to walk the rest of the way to the port, fortunately not a long distance. Yet it was an opportunity for introductions, each as unusual as the next. The dowdy man was Ell Redoubt, and he and Chielena took a long moment to affectionately embrace. The girl child introduced herself as Kaede, Dame Knight of the Imperial court, and now permanent guardian of the youngest children of the imperial family and some of the most important children of the noble families, who were trailing along with the other normal passengers making their way to the port station. Only then did he realize that Dake was kidding by saying she had a "haggard and harsh appearance", but he was very right about her amazing violence.

Most of those in the station were imperial combat or space crew mechanica, as the trip to Lur would be as part of a large warship fleet. Once a safe distance from eru Ilúvatar, parts of the fleet would break off to take most of these children to the Samiru worlds, accompanied by Kaede's subordinates, with just two princesses coming to Lur with Kaede herself. Once adult they would be reunited with the others to marry and produce children of their own. Just a short stay, from Bizdoatl's perspective.

For him, the princesses, Dame Kaede and the other living beings, the trip would be uneventful, spent asleep while having their sub-visuals adjusted, yet far from restful as they would not only be getting orientation for their new worlds, including entire non-magic courses taught by their virtuals, which to Bizdoatl was like an instructional round table that never ended. Very different from the fruitless efforts to learn magic when he had done miserably in eru, he was learning non-magic where his teachers could force him to be utterly focused on the subject, which was a new degree of uncomfortable, but effective. He did learn what he had been compelled to learn.

The virtual Jaldo acted as the dream round table chairman, and among the other virtual masters was a virtual Twell Miergo as well as a virtual Dame Kaede, and a very tall, dark man seated next to the little girl, who was identified as Brrsot Buttes, who gave off an air of leadership. He was the dream form of a Samiru leader, projected into his mind.

In an open question period during a time of rest during the crowded waking dream, Bizdoatl learned several very interesting things. The first was that the Samiru were very adept at dreaming, and used it for amazing purposes, even though they believed it would take a dozen or more dedicated eru worlds over a great length of time, just to chart its possibilities. It was how they developed their wordless sound technology, where a small individual could on their own dig a large tunnel, or lift a very heavy weight, or a team of them even propel a giant space vehicle at very high speed through the silence of space. They could even record their thoughts and perceptions on polished metal plates, so that as another person could see images and hear sounds directly in their mind, just by running a finger tip on a marked path on the plate.

As a dream master even by Samiru standards, Brrsot was the one responsible for making this complicated round table conference possible. Ordinarily, you would have to be awake for this to happen, to be aware enough to learn from your virtual masters, but during this long time of sub-visual and magical adjustment it can take many Urte off your learning period. But he was abundantly clear that once Bizdoatl and his team were installed and given an operational tour, the Samiru would pack up and leave, having concluded their contract with the eru. Further communication would only happen on the dream level and via Twell Miergo.

Dame Kaede was more than happy to talk about her non-sword, she called her sun sword. It was an unknown technology from an extinct empire. The invisible blade uses some type of force, other than strength, and can slice most anything short of a rare meta-metal taken from another universe. However, a sword is nothing without a swordsman. My mother discovered it on an alien world, and asked me to bring it over to her to study. When I first grasped its hilt, it took me as its owner and adjusted me. Without magic it still made me quite fast and deadly accurate, and of great interest to the empire, as magical swordsmen cannot predict my actions. To their credit they sponsored me at the eru, and I rose in the ranks of the non-magical masters to become a senior master, when they spirited me away to become a Dame. That was very long ago, but my sword has halted my normal growth, and made me a peer, playmate and guardian of noble children for generations.

Aside from these interludes, training by the other masters was intense, and there is no way Bizdoatl could have learned it apart from the extreme focus that was controlling his mind. Jaldo's knowledge of magic was encyclopedic, yet learning thousands of spells, rituals and formulas that he could never use seemed to be nonsensical to Bizdoatl. Jaldo assured him of their value, because in the future he would likely teach them to others, who would then use them on other, magical worlds.

Yet Jaldo's teachings were very orderly and objective. When it was time for master Felideer to teach him about silence, the source of non-magic, it was unnerving, because it was immersive, being exposed to short, guided tours of silence. Doing it while dreaming was ideal, according to the virtual Felideer, because the dreaming self is equipped with amazing defenses the waking self does not have, and the reality of silence is daunting and dangerous, with its biggest risk being to lose one's bearings and be lost forever.

Bizdoatl was unaware when the transfer took place from the fast magical warships to the much slower mechanica operated transports, and only on the approach to Lur, when everyone was awoken did he learn that their ships would not pause in orbit, but go directly into the volcano landing sites, then be taken deep underground, because a massive, hostile warship armada was enroute to Lur. Brrsot Buttes, communicating from the ground, was clear in his displeasure, both because of the well known pacifism of the Samiru, and for how any confrontation would delay the evacuation of the Samiru from Lur to their own worlds.

To make matters worse, the world of Lur is activating its own defenses, unimagined at that time. Vast numbers of uncivilized ones are marching as one to the expected landing sites of the armada, thankfully all on the continents and none on the great island, though their rationale for the armada doing this was unknown, perhaps to establish bases against the forces they imagined arrayed against them behind the island barrier. Lur was somehow compelling the uncivilized ones to be used as a means to attack the invaders. No matter what happens, this is going to be horrible. Horrible, said Buttes.

Judging from the reports of the mechanica that observed the fight at a safe distance, the legions of mechanica that deployed averaged from level 3 to 4, and were led by living magic casters and magic using warriors. And while they knew they could not recover their magic on Lur, they did not know how rapidly Lur would drain and neutralize what magic they had.

The legions of combat mechanica were torn apart by the horde with bare hands and primitive weapons, a great feat for such durable creations. Fingers, fists and feet penetrating external armor as readily as flesh. The mages and warriors seemed incapable of even hitting their enemy, for they would just disappear during the attack then reappear somewhere else closer to their foe. Within minutes uncivilized ones had infiltrated and sabotaged the warships, then systematically killed their living crews and destroying their mechanica. All told, the invasion was a massacre, the ships torn apart and tossed into the seas. Messages relayed back to their places of origin were so grotesque that it meant no similar invasion would ever again take place.

But that was only part of the situation, as a few other empires in the sector that had been founded almost as peers of the empire, were starting to collapse as well. They were less focused on mitigating their collapse, even if they were aware of it, than fighting internecine struggles. This meant a broad swath of their sector was rapidly becoming chaotic.

A warship of one of them, called the Meduase, had been severely damaged in a fight, and though many were evacuated in a support ship, many remained behind with the assurance by their incompetent Captain of soon and certain rescue, and that though their rations were almost exhausted, that they would be towed to a habitable planet by their scout ships, with enough fuel to land even if their magic had run out. No rescue ships ever came.

It was an Urte after the armada debacle when the few starving survivors of the Meduase finally landed on Lur, and fortunate only in landing on the large island instead of on the continents. By then the Samiru and Bizdoatl and his group sorrowfully offered the starving a feast, their last meal before every one unavoidably fell victim to Lur's deadly sub-visuals. Then they scavenged the Meduase for useful parts and weaponry, Bizdoatl also took their ship's plaque to display in a place of honor as their memorial. He then notified Twell Miergo, showed him the warship's logs, and asked that he compose a written tragedy of both the armada and the Meduase with color, sympathy and poetry so that they not be forgotten among the spacefaring peoples of the sector. His work was a glorious epic poem, and interwoven with the other grand tragedies of the collapse as a masterpiece of literature that would often bring its readers to tears.

The effect of doing so was to create a mythology about Lur as both a real hell and a fantasy hell for spacefarers, told among themselves with increasing exaggeration and superstition, that none would willingly go even to the system that included it, which few had been willing to do before, when Lur was just an unpleasant mystery to most. Bizdoatl remembered this well and decided in the future to make use of Twell's artistry if possible in other ways.

However, for Bizdoatl and his group, the time spent after the destruction of the armada was informative and useful. At the direction of Brrsot Buttes the Samiru had been very forthcoming about their culture and thousands of Urtes of learning about the uncivilized ones, as well as their powerful discoveries of non-magic. This was critical before they could leave this world with full ownership of their own worlds, as Bizdoatl had to sign off that their contract was complete to formalize things.

After he and his group had toured the volcanic bases on the great island, they were taken deep underground to see the last of the grand tunnels built during the first Samiru occupation, created more than 40,000 Urte before. Just a small part of the remains of their abandoned underground civilization, which had for the most part been stripped bare and shipped to the Samiru worlds, and its tunnels collapsed, this last grand tunnel was a bejeweled underground palace. It had also served as a library, as by touching any item within, the mind would be filled with the perceptions of its creator, vivid and dynamic imagery, sounds and sensations of the lush and verdant place that Lur had been before its time of great cold.

While they intended to spirit it all away, Bizdoatl begged that they leave some of it behind for his use, to which they agreed, in that there were many duplicates of the finer pieces. After this, the first of the travels, to the great southern outpost, began with an advance party led by Ell Redoubt. As a level 7, with some special augmentation by Twell, with most of his subordinate mechanica at level 5 or 6, there was no way uncivilized ones could beat them in a fight, factors more powerful and durable than the armada mechanica. But Ell agreed with his instructions that they were just to survey the southern outpost and a great distance around it long before the main body arrived, and to avoid contact if possible. His caution was such that with the discovery of some abandoned villages, everything was halted for several star cycles for debate, until the Samiru explained that the outposts had been used to gradually civilize some of the uncivilized ones, who would in turn teach others. When the Samiru finally closed the southern outpost, the uncivilized ones in the area had no reason to remain, which was as intended.

Among its other purposes was to teach agriculture, which had more success with their uncivilized than did animal husbandry, as they would quickly slaughter introduced herds brought there without thought as to the benefits of domesticization. But the staff of the southern outpost did have success in the most important things: raising tribes with children trained in internal speech, reducing their access to non-magic; creating for them traditions of gods, that further fixed their awareness in reason; to create the idea of tribalism and different rudimentary spoken languages; and the introduction of canine hunting partners for them. At first a wary association, that if either side transgressed would result in violent death, eventually the uncivilized ones and the canines became close partners.

Because it was taking so long, at one point the outposts modified some of the uncivilized ones to further affix their awareness in reason, but the modifications were imperfect. While more and more, many of the uncivilized ones were able to activate their intellectual pair of energy centers and become less uncivilized, some were unable to perform with either intellect or non-magic, and became far less able to live on their own. But those that were successful advanced their entire tribes as what they discovered remained known to their tribe. That is, that unlike magical knowledge that is gained solely through ability and experience, knowledge of this sort could be learned with just intelligence, and even indirectly.

To reward the best of the uncivilized, the southern outpost Samiru used their sound non-magic to erect a town of giant stone blocks, to act as a nucleus of a city, but they did not adequately figure on how such a place would support itself with changes in climate and water supply, so it was not occupied for long. Later groups were able to do so by building an elaborate system of canals, which needed constant maintenance, but they had no idea of the origins of the city.

Yet their aggression remained. Once his group had secured and reactivated part of the fortified southern outpost, for the first time, Bizdoatl was able to review the Samiru records and see for himself how the uncivilized ones behaved. It was beyond terrifying, and left him with a deep feeling of nausea and exhaustion. And it was then he first truly noticed the great change that had slowly taken place in Maid Sagran Doable. While he had long admired her Scubausuc beauty and attentiveness, he realized that increasingly she was showing signs of caring for him, or even affection.

Not having experienced this before to any extent, he tried to explain it, that it was just a function of her level 5 upgrade and her sense of duty, that she was somewhat self-aware and becoming more so with the help of Twell. And only after he had made a routine consultation with Twell was the truth explained to him, that Scubausuc were intensely emotional and passionate, that Doable and several of the other improved mechanica were rapidly becoming fully self-aware, and in short, that Doable was falling in love with him, while at the same time increasingly overwrought with her own unfamiliar emotions and inability to express them.

This was made even more painful to her because of the affection between Ell Redoubt and Chielena had begun to blossom into love as strong and confusing as it is for intelligent living creatures, but on a different level.

This went over Bizdoatl's understanding. How could a mechanica love? And more to the point, said Twell, the question you really want to ask is how can a living being love a mechanica back? This question became so puzzling that eventually Bizdoatl convened a round table with the virtual masters and Twell. While they were all masters in their fields, none had any great experience with mechanica love, so eventually Jaldo intervened, and as a demiurge will do, came through with a practical solution and asked if there were any objections to it. In short order, the other masters agreed, though Bizdoatl didn't quite get what they were agreeing to, and Jaldo announced that Twell would arrange a fast delivery to Lur of additional upgrade kits for the mechanica.

Bizdoatl didn't have time ponder what this meant, because otherwise the news from the empire was bad, as it and its neighbor empires, though still in the early stages of collapse, were suffering a loss of confidence. This manifested itself in ways that were faster, and often harsher, than was the collapse of magic. It also signaled the beginning of the end of eru Ilúvatar, as its faculty and students, as well as those of other erus, were deployed to worlds throughout the empire. Inter-world commerce had almost stopped, replaced by floods of refugees desperate to find a place to live, and often to them, desperate to find where there was still magic, because they knew no other way to live.

He finally understood, that some means, any means of overcoming this horror, of collapsing worldview, of the failure of defined reality, a loss of confidence in everything you thought that you knew, bringing forth madness and despair was beyond what most intelligent beings could bear. Death comes with utter surrender and indifference to life, with only empty ritual left behind. All the precious rules and laws are forgotten. Bizdoatl finally understood why they had invested so much into him, a discarded and lonely individual with no great talents or skills, only an extremely long life. He also saw how much was expected of him, that by the time the experiment had been brought to fruition, every one of them would be dust, and the empire just a fading memory.

Yet somehow he was expected to save the galaxy, with a planet of savage, uncivilized beings, from this endlessly repeating nightmare.

That starset, from a beautiful vantage high up in the southern outpost, protected from the cold, biting wind, Bizdoatl and Doable stood together as a couple, near where Ell Redoubt and Chielena stood together, and while overwhelmed with emotions from it of all he had seen and done, he asked her if she would like to embrace. She softly said yes, her eyes bright with excitement, and her body filled with Scubausuc emotions, a symphony far beyond the emotions of most other living beings. For his part, a brief glance told him that Ell and Chielena were also holding each other, before resolving to savor the warm and loving embrace of Doable, something he had never experienced before and would cherish for a very long time.


	5. Chapter 5

The southern outpost had in its time imported any number of plants from the empire, in very sterile conditions, then only slowly, over countless generations, conditioned them to coexist with the Lur sub-visuals, and then many more generations to coexist with other plants, then insects, and the small fauna. It was an amazing study of attack, defense, competition, and cooperation before the Samiru could even consider introducing them to natural conditions. In the process, many plants developed chemicals to protect themselves that made them truly unique. Many were poisons, many were meant to attract other plants and animals to help spread their seed. Some that had been used as spices on their home worlds either had their quality reduced or enhanced. Many were novel and interesting in their properties.

And even then, they had to discreetly seed lands close enough to uncivilized camps to attract their attention, with the idea of indirectly teaching them the value of agriculture. And very slowly the uncivilized ones learned. But they could not overcome their ferocity against larger animals which wiped out many test animals and limited their food animals to the smaller ones.

However, by focusing on agriculture and other plant life, the number and type of useful plants and trees increased considerably throughout Lur, in great forests, swamps and marshland, plains and deserts, and arable coastlines filled with water creatures. It also allowed for gradual migration of the uncivilized ones. In this regard it had different results from the northern outpost, which cultivated nomadic migrations among its charges.

Bizdoatl and his party spent most of their time in the vast, but now mostly empty southern outpost training in all sorts of ways. At first, seeing Bizdoatl staring off into space while getting instruction from his virtual mages, Dame Kaede and the princesses wondered if he was weak minded, before the situation was explained to them. For their part, though the princesses were already accomplished in fighting skills even at a young age, Kaede enlisted the help of Ell Redoubt and Chilena Lethe as sparring partners, and intensely enjoyed putting on spectacular demonstrations with them, though had to steel herself against even touching her sword, instead using a training weapon, as her sword blade would have destroyed both mechanica in a moment.

Most of Bizdoatl's time was spent with the Felideer mage, learning how to activate the 27 of the 35 energy circuits that were usable on Lur. The 12 primary circuits were quite powerful and intertwined with the energy centers. The other 15 were to keep the flow between them balanced and the overall body both balanced, yet imbalanced enough to allow dynamic action with short notice. By learning them well he could optimize his health, and become a powerful healer of other living beings.

After subtantially increasing a primary circuit by doing its repeated, ritual dance, it would be followed by a cooling off period in which he would experience increasing intervals of the reality of silence, within and without. He likened it to moving from a hot place into a cold one. The virtual Dake and Anye Stop assured him that he would have to safely enter and exit silence countless times with the help of Felideer before he should even imagine doing so on his own with a gesture. Even with Felideer's mastery of silence, she had only accessed just tiny bits of the unknown. This put Bizdoatl at a great disadvantage against the uncivilized ones who were believed to have access to other bits, and though he met many other entities within, none were of the uncivilized kind. These entities were very exotic and yet difficult to describe.

Over the time he spent there, he activated his energy circuits each several times and his energy centers were both charged and had become more complex. He was generally unaware of the changes this made to his body, until the virtual master Parkdeer suggested he show himself to the members of his party. The young princesses were awestruck, seeing him as lean, muscular and toned, far more handsome than they had seen before. But Dame Kaede said that all his exposure to silence had made him less real, more ephemeral and dreamlike, but only to the trained eye. Her sword suggested to her that he was worth watching as a potential threat, which it had not done before. But the strongest response came from Doable. She could not classify or describe the feelings she was having towards him, except that their intensity was profound. She could only complement him on his appearance, but she wanted to say a lot more, but held back, which in turn gave her another kaleidoscope of emotions.

About that time, the fast delivery from Twell arrived at Lur and parts of it were forwarded to the southern outpost, though the vast majority off loaded at the primary Samiru base. Of great moment were shipments addressed to the primary machina of the Bizdoatl group, by name. When contacted, Twell explained that machina construction had halted in the empire but that he had stockpiled a huge amount of spare parts and upgrades, stored in caches where they would not be found, including on Lur where they can be assembled to create all sorts of machina, including many for unconventional use.

However, for my friends I have sent upgrades, including some that had been illegal under imperial law, which is no longer in effect, including machina to living being and machina-living being reproductive hardware. This even shocked Bizdoatl, because he knew of the prohibitions, but also meant he would have to have long conversations with his leading mechanica, individually and in groups, to divine what it meant to them personally, what it meant to all of them as a group, and what it meant to their mission.

Brrsot Buttes the Samiru leader intervened with a message directed at Bizdoatl, with the request that he keep its information confidential from all until the Samiru had departed Lur forever. The message was about a package to be delivered by a close aide to Buttes, which was to be examined then returned to Buttes. It contained three metal thought plates that had been kept by Samiru leaders through the first and second occupations. The closest things to sacred artifacts of their people, who would be upset were they to be seen or had their contents divulged to an outsider, Buttes decided that in good faith he had to show them to Bizdoatl to completely carry out that portion of the contract that involved the survey of Lur.

Having used these artifacts before, he knew that by just slowly tracing the path inscribed on them with a finger, the mind would be filled with visual, audio, even tactile and odor just as the plates creator had perceived them. The plate would then guide the speed and direction of that finger. They were immensely entertaining and educational and could last for quite a while. Children learned quickly with them. But this first plate was very old, though carefully preserved, he suspected from the first Samiru occupation, and not very long in content, at least judging from the path inscribed on it. It also had the character of an important, official record.

After the onset of the time of great cold, a tunneling party had struck a cavern, not unusual except that this cavern, with no obvious entrance to the surface, had several unusual features. First was a large, hard, but amorphous object made from black glass. Second was that the entrance tunnel had been designed with several air pockets and deep drains to prevent surface water from collecting. Third was that the entrance and tunnel had been sealed from within the cavern. And fourth, that this had taken place many millions of Urte before.

As a matter of course, the black glass rock was removed and sent to an isolated Samiru base for evaluation. Examination soon revealed that there was a body within, and as the glass was carefully eroded, that the body was in good condition and alive. And recently conscious. So very expert mind speakers were brought in to communicate with it. After several Urte, and the creation of a mutually understandable language, the being within understood that an extraordinary amount of time had passed. It then explained that it was a survivor of one of the great planetary sterilizations, likely the last of its kind.

It said that the world of its time had been sterilized with very hot water of a quantity several times greater than the surface water. This water existed in rock deep underground, under intense heat and pressure. But the creators of Lur somehow had the technology to cause an incredible underwater fissure, so that great amounts of cold water would descend onto this water trapping rock, forcing it to release its hot water in a chain reaction. Soon the cold surface water would become hot, causing torrential rains, and increase in volume such that almost all land masses on Lur would be submerged.

The survivor was in a cave at the top of a very high mountain, over a chain of great caverns which could hold an impossible amount of drain water. After sealing the entrance and tunnels, it then covered itself with a coccoon of black glass for protection and went into deep sleep. Eventually the world flooding process ended and the extra water again descended to be reabsorbed into the rock, deep within the crust of Lur, before the great fissure closed.

The Samiru commented that it would be unwise to exit the coccoon, due to the sub-visuals, but the survivor assured them that its physiology made it immune to such things. However, the empire of the creators was such that they likely left behind arcane systems to sterilize anything left after the hot water, so for their mutual protection they should not record its image, nor speak of it too boldly. The Samiru agreed to this request, and the survivor went on its way, indifferent to the extreme cold, but with the offer to visit again, though it had not since then. Only later did the Samiru realize they had missed a great opportunity to learn many things from it.

The second plate was even more enigmatic. It described a set number of beings, called heralds, that existed on Lur. They could look like anything, but the one they met looked like a Samiru for the time they knew it. Its purpose was to serve something that was undefined and beyond the minds of living beings, so the heralds had been created as an interface. That which they served maintained continuity of reality itself on Lur. For them, reality was like a tent filled with holes patched by living beings, but that which they served was like the tent poles holding it up.

Interactions between heralds were to be kept to a minimum, as though the heralds had to walk among living beings at times, interference with a herald could result with devastation over large areas, its reality being rewritten. Just ignore us and don't worry and live your lives, for the best outcome, the herald advised. Those Samiru that spoke with it found it to be very relaxed and friendly, enjoying casual chatter over food and drink. Yet the appearance of a herald meant that soon, some unimaginable, invisible, incredible something was to come that way. Perhaps, because there was no clarity about its master or anything it was or did.

The third plate was of a gating mechanism the second occupation Samiru had discovered. Not powered by or using magic at all, it was assumed left behind by the creators. It had completely different functions on top of the normal ones. To start with, it could be used to observe anything in the entire world, using one of its separate consoles. Then in an instant, they could be transported from one part of Lur to another. But when focused on an individual, a second function would show a list of habitable worlds to which they might travel, unique to them, which meant it physio-analyzed them.

A third function would transport just the spirit, soul or awareness of a recently dying or dead being, which meant that it could somehow look back in time and catch it either at the moment of death or just before. Partway through, alert warnings from his virtual mages made him stop, and established a high volume, high security flow communications link with Twell, before starting over. Bizdoatl thought it was obvious, as this gating mechanism could be used as an incredibly powerful weapon. Twell later explained to him that much of the interest of the scholars to Lur was based on this mechanism, but that the Samiru had insisted, out of fear mostly, in not turning it over to the eru until they had departed.

Brrsot Buttes aide, who had been patiently waiting all this time, saw what he thought was Bizdoatl finishing up on the third plate, so handed him what he said was a key to the great vault in the main Samiru base where the gating mechanism was secured, as well as telling him how to get there in the base. He seemed to be very stressed about the whole thing, and anxious to take the plates back and depart, until Bizdoatl explained that he had not yet finished with the third plate, so it would be a bit longer. He apologized, and said the mechanism was almost as terrifying as the uncivilized ones, and the sooner he and the rest of the Samiru left Lur, the better.

Once he had finished the plate, and returned it to the aide who immediately departed, the virtual mage of Jaldo came into view, and said that though it was pure mechanism, he wished he could have just gazed in wonder at it in person, even if he had no idea how it worked, just to look at the aesthetic beauty of such a transcendent thing. This is why you are here, he said to Bizdoatl. It is what makes Lur complete, so that eventually its children, and its idea, will be spread throughout the galaxy.

It can transport entire buildings, all of eru Ilúvatar and everyone within to another world. But here is something truly staggering. With a careful and attentively made enough design, this gating mechanism can reach into the unknown and turn a design into reality. He said it again, to make sure Bizdoatl understood, then added, create a picture, and if it has enough detail, the gating mechanism will make it real. If the design is of a living being, or even a god or demon, every part of its design will become real in its world of manifestation. It will be alive, awake, intelligent, aware, and even learn, with all the powers assigned to it made real.

So if I used the gate on a virtual master, would they become real? The virtual Jaldo froze, its expression one of great surprise. I never thought of that, he said, looking a bit embarrassed. Excuse me, I need to make a consultation. It might take a while.

Twell Miergo eventually contacted Bizdoatl, to let him know that the gating mechanism was so technologically advanced that it could have only have come from one or more of the original empires of the galaxy, almost certainly the one that created Lur, that lasted far longer than empires could do today. Even were he able to commit all of his resources to its study, it would consume everything he was, without learning much more. Fortunately, it is adept at dealing with any and every situation, so if its user selects a target, it will find or create the best situation for them.

Does it have intelligence?, asked Bizdoatl. Most certainly, but one far in advance of ours to the point where we would be hard pressed to communicate with it. Other than that, things like its power source, even its mechanical and non-mechanical parts are made from things we cannot make.

One of its features to your interest is enigmatic, but interesting. The worlds it transports to and from are not necessarily real, from our point of view. For example, transport living or carefully designed virtual animals to be made real, to one of these virtual worlds ideal for them, and they will rapidly live normal lives and reproduce much faster than in a real world. Then when they are transported to a real world, it will even acclimate them to it during the transfer, including at the sub-visual level, so it will be as if they had lived their generations in their destination world. Incredible.

This can overcome the problem the Samiru experienced, of transporting animals here, having them magically acclimated, as you were, and release them only for them to be immediately killed and eaten by the uncivilized ones. So they put their efforts into keeping small numbers of live animals in their bases, and changing the uncivilized ones to accept the idea of raising herds of them. Then, when the time is right, entire herds of these animals will be transported and suddenly appear on Lur.

Planning on returning to his training with Felideer on his energy circuits and silence, he was instead greeted by Jaldo, who in his teaching demeanor explained that yes, indeed, the gate could take his virtual mage and other data and recombine it to again make him a living being. However, it could not be done on Lur or it would quickly sap his magic, so if Bizdoatl wished to do so, he could hopefully put him on a moderate magic world early in its magic decay cycle. And, he said, pausing, if you decide to do so, assuming I keep my knowledge, powers, abilities and skills, I would appreciate an upgrade, to a much longer lived young female kind, as they often could grow far more diverse abilities. Still only half as long lived as those of your world, I want to see if I can design a balanced magic world that won't collapse, as a complement to the Lur experiment.

And two other things. First of all, Felideer thinks you need a break of at least 20 star cycles to let your body stabilize to both its higher circuitry energy level and exposure to silence. Second, that you should check out the uncivilized population reports of the Samiru, as something is going on there.

It was soon learned that after the destruction of the armada, most of the uncivilized ones had turned on each other, resulting in bloody battles and the slaughter of vast numbers, which had reduced their total world numbers by perhaps seven out of ten, followed by protracted starvation. This was the first successful use of the wise ones, mechanica skinned to look like uncivilized elders, who first provided food to starving villages, then created or renewed their knowledge of agriculture. This gave the Samiru their last chance to spread agriculture, even though the southern uncivilized still had to rely on small animals. The northern outpost had much more fortune that way, as their uncivilized were able to become nomadic herders.

It was also noted that slowly, the uncivilized were starting to adapt to the different energy areas of Lur, based on where they lived. Of the given areas, each one corresponded with a single energy circuit of their bodies, giving them an overabundance of that type of energy, as well as a shortage of the energy of its complementary circuit which worked hard to maintain a balance. Over generations this produced physical adaptations, such as particularly strong and weak internal organs and changes to skin tone or even color.

He wondered how quickly and how much they would adapt, and if they would remain the same species if kept apart for a long time. He remembered how quickly life adapted on this peculiar world.

However, anything he was doing or thinking ended with the return of Doable, who had been very busy taking care of the outpost security. She almost knocked him over with a passionate embrace. A strange conversation, as she went back and forth between various reports and the strong new Scubausuc emotions she was feeling. Twell had advised Bizdoatl that it might take several Urte before they stabilized enough for her to feel comfortable with them. Though Bizdoatl started to get an inkling that she thought the two of them were in a romantic relationship. But he set that aside for the time being, as Ell Redoubt was starting to contract the security perimeter around the southern outpost; and the permanent crew of mechanica had taken over from the last of the Samiru, and proved capable with ordinary operations plus had an outpost upgrade schedule including extensive remodeling for future use.

Once everything was in order, his party would make the move to the northern outpost. He was looking forward to this, as for the first time he would get to see uncivilized who had taken the first steps towards civilization. Projections from Twell and the masters were that when a threshold number of uncivilized had reached this level, the departure from violent primitivism would rapidly expand outward until only isolated pockets of savagery remained on all of Lur.


	6. Chapter 6

He had taken a liking to some of the agricultural products that the Samiru had introduced and were now flourishing. He guessed that some of the flavors and spices would have been enjoyed in the imperial kitchens, before feeling somewhat sad that they probably no longer existed. He got a detailed analysis of them, and even offered some seed to Twell, that could return after a cargo shipment to Lur, that they might be grown on other worlds.

Dame Kaede and the princesses rejoined the party and she suggested that they have a farewell feast on their last day in the outpost. Chilena Lethe mentioned that the girls had become quite adept at fighting, and the Dame also made sure they kept up with their schooling. She then surprised Bizdoatl by saying that the princesses thought that Chilena and Ell having children would be a great thing. Bizdoatl expressed surprise, so she explained that with the machinas latest upgrade, they are now able to conceive and bear children of many kinds, or a mix of compatible kinds, of beings that live in the empire.

Well liked machina in the palace are often granted the ability if they have achieved full awareness and share affections, and their children are recognized as being of high station, so get the care and education of nobility though they are untitled unless they earn it later, as several have. Because they are often mixes of the best qualities, elsewhere they are seen as outsiders, but in the palace they are treated as equals.

He was rather taken aback at the whole thing. Chilena Lethe continued in an unexpected direction by saying that there had been many efforts at eru Ilúvatar to mix breed children with no magical ability and the long lives of your kind, but those like you are particularly resistant to such efforts, which is why you are of such high value. This is why Doable was given many samples of females of your kind, so if you wish you two can produce descent on Lur to preserve your kind if they are wiped out on your world, yet they will be different enough from each other to avoid problems with their own descent. Not being raised with magic will be more like you than others of your kind on your home world.

Suddenly, Bizdoatl realized why Doable had been so affectionate. She wanted to breed with him. Or, he checked himself, maybe she might want to breed with me, or think I want to breed with her. Which made him think back to when she used to look like a female from his world. From there it was easy to assume that she had been made that way, to want to mate with him. He doubted the sometimes ruthless masters would have any problem breeding him to produce a dynasty to perpetually rule over Lur and everyone within.

The trouble with this line of thinking is that as a group they were about to take over management of an entire world, which will mean a huge amount of work and likely copious amounts of brutal violence for a very long time, so it was not the best time to fret about such things.

With the southern outpost secure and under long term machina operations and maintenance, it was now time to head to the northern outpost to discover its secrets. Other than the main base on the great island, there were so many Samiru still there that they were planning to use the outpost as a second launch site, a good idea in case something went wrong.

Things were delayed because Samiru in a scout ship doing a routine survey in a near orbital pattern, approaching the northern outpost from the other direction, and detected a strong, ground based, non-magical observational signature from some mountain caves. Other than just the detection, the scout ship crew could not tell what kind it was, alien technology, silence based, dream based, or whether it was automatic or directed. What was known was that it had caused some degree of surface blood vessel rupture in the skin of the Samiru hit by it.

Ell Redoubt and his battle and surveillance mechanica went into full battle mode. About a hundred in number, upgraded to a minimum of level five, they and their equipment could challenge a modern living army and possibly defeat it. Bizdoatl had never seen them assembled as a group, only one or two individuals, and to him it was a frightening idea. And then he remembered the Samiru plates, so asked Ell Redoubt to stand down for the time being, until they could figure out a better way than a direct assault.

They held a short but intense meeting in which Bizdoatl had to act as a proxy for his virtual masters, with a projected image of Twell Miergo, a dreaming self created by Brrsot Buttes, all the top mechanica, and finally Dame Kaeda, who insisted on bringing the princesses with her. Even in his dreaming self, Buttes seemed to be uncomfortable at the mere mention of the plates, so asked that they not be referred to directly to any other Samiru, but only on the content within, germane to the briefing.

The unknowns involved were daunting. The survivor, of unknown capability. The heralds, who could if not directly, perhaps involve their terrifying masters, perhaps, who went beyond the unknown into the realm of the unknowable, and finally the gate mechanism, a tool or mechanism or weapon a million Urte beyond anything the empire could make. Nobody left the meeting with the same composure with which they had entered. Ell stood his forces down and the decision was made to return to the main Samiru base on the large island and access the gate mechanism for its observational abilities before anyone could travel to or from the northern outpost.

Ell Redoubt left a heavy squad in the southern outpost for the time being, with orders to report any anomalies, and once there had been a cautious movement back to the large island, he busied himself with inspections, upgrades, high altitude mapping and other preparations, all spurred on by Twell Miergo, who enjoyed the exercise as there had been a declining interest in his abilities by those in the fragmenting empire.

Brrsot Buttes frustration was obvious. He had sincerely hoped that the gate mechanism vault would not be opened before the Samiru had left, but now, with all the other Samiru almost ready to leave, he had to physically accompany Bizdoatl and the others, not just in a dreaming self, but in his real body, to see the dangerous mechanism. And because of the interference, making movement with the northern outpost problematic, the Samiru there would most likely have to leave using the less capable ships kept for emergency use in coordinated launches with the large island, which meant they would certainly be seen by numbers of uncivilized ones, putting the outpost at high risk. Buttes then authorized them to flood the entry levels with unbreathable gases as a barrier to infiltration just before launch, with the idea that Bizdoatl's party could readily vent them off as needed.

Despite himself, he did smirk in seeing Bizdoatl fumble with the vault key a few times before it finally engaged and opened the formidable door. The gate mechanism within was awesome to all who ever saw it. Despite its giant open shape, objects did not pass through it. Instead there were consoles which could focus on a thing, give recommendations as to where it could be sent, and send it directly, with whatever modifications had been requested by a user.

This was of moment, as Brrsot sat on a Samiru chair, one of many brought in for the purpose, and spent time locating the source of the attack on the scout ship. It was easy to locate its cave of origin, as smoke was pouring from it, there were obvious signs of blast damage, and some uncivilized ones were milling about inspecting it. Initially the temptation was to look more closely, but Brrsot moved back to see the larger scene. He explained that the blast was less important than whatever had made the blast.

Some distance away he saw a figure, at which he looked more closely, then remarked to all, "the survivor". Was that what attacked the ship?, asked a subordinate mechanica of Ell Redoubt, likely imagining how best to attack and destroy it. Brrsot winced at the indirect mention of information he saw as privileged. No, I suspect that instead it was what destroyed whatever carried out the attack.

Adding things up, Bizdoatl remarked, did the destroyed thing a creator weapon and attack your ship thinking it was a survivor to be sterilized? Had its attack lasted more than a moment, it would have killed that ships entire crew, he replied. Fortunately the ship's speed was such that it was quickly out of range.

However, he added, the gate mechanism was also built by the creators of Lur, and since it is both intelligent and may be harmful to the survivor, it would be appropriate to evacuate the survivor to a place of safety as soon as we can. If it is willing, the Samiru are willing to take it with us to another world where it would be much safer. Plus, were it to learn of the gate mechanism, it would likely want to destroy it as well.

After a short consultation, Bizdoatl said, agreed, so let us take night shuttles to the northern outpost, pick up the survivor, and the Samiru there, and return both to the great island for their departure. Then my group can get its last briefing about northern base operations, and I can sign the imperial contract for your planetary ownership.

Brrsot Buttes was all smiles. He quickly assembled a team of dreamers to locate and greet the survivor, as well as asking if it wanted to leave Lur. After having its choice of destinations explained, it selected one of the Samiru worlds and said it would prefer to go there. Buttes then volunteered that if they got additional useful information about the creators from the survivor that they would give it to Twell Miergo.

On an ominous note, he relayed that as the night shuttle picked up the survivor, that many of the uncivilized ones that lived in the area seemed to be moving in the direction of the survivor's cave, not the blast site. But the gate mechanism was not on at the time, so they were left with the question of what was directing them there? A remaining system of the creators, perhaps the world of Lur itself, or were they doing this on their own?

So, after the productive delay of just a single cycle, Bizdoatl's team and Brrsot Buttes arrived in the northern outpost. He hadn't guessed that this had been the primary research station of the Samiru for the last 800 Urte, a very active place, expecting something mostly inactive like the southern outpost, so though the overwhelming majority of their research had already been transmitted to Twell, Bizdoatl was still required to sit through an endless number of research summaries, many of which were far more intellectual than he had imagined. And while some caught his attention, he was grateful that they provided him thick written volumes that he could refer back to over the course of many Urtes.

It was far more interesting to watch the recordings made of the evolving uncivilized ones in the north. At first they just trailed herds of animals they called Pooro, though it was unknown how they had overcome their lust to slaughter the entire herd, taking just those they needed for themselves and their canines. But there was speculation that they were taught this, and many other things, by their canines themselves, who had a more advanced social structure.

From there, the Samiru introduced mechanica wise ones, who looked like uncivilized elders, to slowly introduce basic technologies they had never seen before, like sewing needles, fishhooks and combs. Nothing too fast and not too much to a tribe at once, to limit risk. And while their numbers fluctuated, there seemed to be a movement east whenever there were too many to support. As such, the more civilized of the uncivilized spread out across the broadest land mass and even to some of the smaller islands in the great waters, using simple vessels.

It became increasingly hard to track how all the introduced influences were spreading. It was then that Bizdoatl discussed with Buttes and the masters the idea that since infiltrator mechanica could reproduce with uncivilized ones, they could create offspring using a selection of design matter from much more capable beings of the empire. While the offspring would likely be infertile, in their lives they would, raised by the uncivilized, push their tribes to advance faster from within.

This suggestion got the attention of Doable, which Bizdoatl at first imagined was based in her own intention to reproduce with him. But it turned out that she was genuinely interested in how he, not the masters or Buttes, came up with the innovative idea. On reflection, she had a very good point, and though he had no idea of its origins, he felt certain that it was his idea, not an implanted or suggested one.

What if all this improvement to your body, she said, boldly touching his arm, had also caused a dramatic improvement to your mind? This and other things had led her to be interested in the circuits and centers of living beings, and what it would be like to have such things in her body. In turn this made him wonder that if the gate mechanism could make reality from a design, could it convert a machina into a living being?

Brrsot then showed him the collected estimates of how the Samiru thought that Bizdoatl should move ahead with the evolution of the uncivilized. It was a series of times of peaceful and orderly development, punctuated with the chaos of competition between the tribes. Then their villages would form into cities, then city states, and finally nations. With that, though still bloody and brutal at times, they would be regarded as more civilized than not. This was not easy for the Samiru to compile, because of their pacifism, but with the senses of realism and pragmatism, and the hope that they would not have to involve themselves in the struggle directly.

Bizdoatl noted a possible flaw in the plan. What would motivate the uncivilized to do these things? His thought was the creation of religions and philosophies. To properly craft them, he figured he would need Twell's creativity. However, a suggestion from both virtual Dake and Felideer made him reconsider the larger situation.

While Twell could chart out an ideal course for the development of the uncivilized ones, as their ability to use silence was diminishing by talking to themselves, Bizdoatl could use his skill to assemble a quantity of the true unknown from silence, then use a gesture to change the reality of the uncivilized ones to follow that path that Twell charted. Thus while the religions and philosophies taught them would not be magic, they would feel to their followers like they were magical.

But won't that much exposure to silence harm me?, he asked. I have already experienced it so much that to living beings I am appearing less solid or tangible. Twell was able to contribute there as well, by suggesting that Bizdoatl at times be recorded by the gate mechanism, in that it could remake him in his earlier form, without the changes made by silence. He was not so bold as to use the gate, however, without significant tests performed on it. Thus it was resolved that he had to become such a master of the gate mechanism that he could communicate with it. Which once again required the support of Twell.

Twell first began searching through his immense library of languages by focusing on the region of space where the creator empire had existed, figuring that some of the known languages might have been derived from one of the creator languages used in their empire. But they were too far removed to be recognizable by the gate mechanism. So from there he used multilingual examples that had both one of these known languages, and unknown, dead languages.

In doing so, he was able to access an excellent source. He was able to recreate the language of a short lived ancient empire that had great numbers of artifacts, because all life on its worlds had been wiped out very quickly in a space sector disaster. For the most part that empire had such an abudance of information that it was a daunting execise to study it, so the erus ignored it for the time being, overwhelmed by ongoing projects, after doing a basic survey and copying one of its major libraries.

This extinct empire did know of the creator empire, and had themselves collected language fragments from it. All to create a simple statement requesting a translation object. The gate mechanism activated for a brief moment, then materialized a small, cubicle device. Bizdoatl touched it briefly, it activated and before he could react it had scanned his entire mind and taught him the languages of the creator empire. It all happened so quickly, easily, and painlessly that he was amazed.

Because much of it he was physically unable to speak, the languages had been modified so that he could, and the gate mechanism would still understand him. So this is what an advanced civilization could do. From that point, he was the maestro and the gate mechanism was his instrument, he thought, until he realized that out of everything that was possible for him with the gate mechanism was at its most basic level.

What magnificent beings the creators must have been to do all of this. Yet at the same time, though their empire was very long lived, it was still extinct, having fallen prey to the curse of magic. The more he thought about it, the smaller he felt, that somehow he, with a group of virtual masters, and a small army of semi-sentient and eventually fully sentient or even living mechanica, and an impressively powerful sentient thinking machina, and a few superior living beings, could take a world of uncivilized creatures and accomplish was this amazing creator empire never could.

It was very quiet when he went to the high vantage of the outpost, long after starset, and lost in thought he expected to be alone, but as a pleasant surprise, making him wonder if he had unthinkingly gestured her there, Doable was gazing off into the distance. She greeted him in her affectionate way, then sensed with her Scubausuc emotions that Bizdoatl seemed emotionally low. So wordlessly she directed him to his room, where for the remainder of the night she helped him feel loved and appreciated, in a ritual that none of his kind had ever experienced, but bound couples together perhaps not just for a single life, but beyond.


	7. Chapter 7

The time of departure for the Samiru had arrived. As busy as Brrsot Buttes had been with the preparations, they had to be finished before the last several star cycles, as they were set aside for reflection by the Samiru, as well as correction of any unexpected problems. Over the course of their two long occupations, some of their greatest dream masters had decided on their death to become ghost spirits, both so that they could attend this long sought after final departure, and so that they could at rare intervals observe and tell the Samiru on their new worlds how all the hard work and sacrifice on Lur had continued after they left.

On the first of these days of reflection, Lady Kaede approached both Buttes and Bizdoatl with an unusual request.

Because of my sword, I have lived many generations beyond what those of my kind would typically live. Yet only as a young girl. And while I am sworn to protect the princesses, I would also want to become an adult and live a normal life. For this reason, I would like to use the gate mechanism to make a reproduction of myself, one of which would be free of the sword and to live a normal life, and the other to continue to guard the princesses on our trip to their Samiru world.

In exchange for this, in addition to Bizdoatl's certification of the contract of the Samiru with the empire, I am authorized to enhance the contract with the royal seal. While not a guarantee, it is a well respected tradition among imperial families to honor worlds under another families' seal. This would mean that while the Samiru worlds might still eventually become part of other empires, they would keep their autonomy as a group and individually, without the need for things like royal family intermarriage, difficult since the Samiru do not have a nobility.

Agreeing to this meant that well over a star cycle of hard work, under the remote direction of Twell, and with many technician mechanica, with both Bizdoatl and Buttes using consoles, first to run many tests with different objects and then living animals. A mechanica volunteered to do a double transfer, first from the gate vault to the departure port, so that its elaborate mechanica internal diagnostics could check for any transfer errors, and the second transfer, back to the gate vault while being converted from a mechanica to a living being. He had become fascinated by Doable's stories of emotions and wonder at the energy centers and circuits of living beings, and wanted to experience what it was like, since she had expressed an interest in it as well.

The double transfers went well, but the former mechanica had to take several star cycles away from duty, staying in some quiet, darker quarters because of being overwhelmed by it all. Bizdoatl had the foresight to assign another mechanica, familiar with living being physiology, to tend to him and ensure that he consumed enough water and food, and knew how to eliminate waste.

At least Bizdoatl assumed they went well, until he woke up during his rest period with profound head pain and a very loud noise, both of which soon eased. "Adjusting" said a voice in his room, then "apologies". He was very startled. "This... is... gate." Then after another "adjusting", it said, "would you like a transfer report?"

"Yes", replied a still dazed Bizdoatl.

It had taken Bizdoatl and Buttes, with the direction of Twell, to come up with the twenty or so console settings for the mechanica transfer. But Gate showed him a visual display of at least twelve hundred or so settings they should have made, to do just those two transfers properly. Then it gave a generally good summary of what they wanted to achieve, and asked if it should correct the transfer errors in the subject so that it will not be harmed. Bizdoatl agreed. Later, he learned that the ex-mechanica in his room had been in agonizing pain and organ failure when suddenly he was normal and healthy, before passing out and going into a deep sleep, utterly exhausted.

Hoping to keep the dialogue with Gate going, Bizdoatl then asked about the Dame Kaede transfer. After a long pause it said the best results could be obtained by putting the reproduction in a virtual reality, until the original and her sword had departed Lur. Bizdoatl guessed that it had used his memory to name the world so that he would recognize it. If done just before her ship left, she would age just a few hundred star cycles in the accelerated virtual reality, roughly an Urde, but the reproduction's connection to the sword would be broken.

After Gate had displayed the substantial number of settings to be used for this purpose, it asked him if he would like to execute the transfer now, or save it for later. Later, said Bizdoatl. The he asked Gate of the appropriate means of contacting him, to which Gate replied that he should just say his name, at least to plan. But if making an actual transfer, it is safest to use a console, so you can visually check what you are doing.

Dame Kaede was very impressed by it all, after talking with Bizdoatl. But then she said that after exiting the virtual reality, the reproduction part of her needed somewhere to go, as Lur was not to her taste. Bizdoatl then asked her what she would like, and she wondered what worlds Gate might suggest to her what it thought was best. So he made an inquiry of Gate, that offered hundreds of possibilities. So she spent cycles using Gate's console viewer at world after world before settling on the one she liked the most. Gate replied that in her virtual reality, her sub-visuals would be adjusted for the new world. Were there any weapons, tools, skills, or provisions she would like to take as well?

After spending some more time looking at where on her new world she wanted to be, she then gave Bizdoatl a list of items, one of which was a communications device allowing her to contact Twell Miergo, mostly in case of emergency, figuring he could in turn contact Bizdoatl to arrange evacuation.

Gate was able to do this by replicating the device that had been implanted in Bizdoatl for that purpose, but modifying it enough to use a different channel to contact Twell alone. Dame Kaede liked the idea so much that she wanted one device in both versions of her, so she would also able to contact her other self via Twell.

The last day before the Samiru departure, Bizdoatl certified that the Samiru contract with the empire had been completed with no outstanding adjustments, and Dame Kaede used the royal seal on their ownership of the Samiru worlds. Their final meal began with a long invocation to their ghost dreamer ancestors, which were not visible except to the Samiru dream masters, who relayed the ghost blessings to all.

The day of the launch was hectic. All the Samiru ships were ready to go, except for the one carrying Dame Kaede. She would be by herself in the departure port away from anyone else for safety reasons, so that as soon as she was duplicated she could board and they would all take off, while her duplicate was transported to her world of choice with far less delay than the Urte she was expecting. Figuring that the uncivilized ones would note their departure, both Ell Redoubt and Chilena Lethe would have the great island security to maximum, and several mechanica would use Gate consoles to keep an eye on any unexpected movements among the uncivilized.

Bizdoatl expected to hear the ships depart, but they were remarkably quiet, propelled by the silent words of the Samiru teams providing the motive force. They were not very forthcoming about this, their great skill, so useful in lifting great weights, digging large tunnels, and propelling spaceships at high speed. While virtual Felideer was interested in it, as a related aspect of silence, even she expressed that it was just another tiny piece of the true unknown.

Doable had been by his side during the final departure, and said to him that now we can begin to build a world full of strong beings, travelers who can be sent throughout the galaxy to free it from the crippling chains of magic. And with that she embraced him. I could get very comfortable with this, he thought.

The next cycle, Bizdoatl made a conference with the virtual masters and command mechanica, to discuss the Samiru plan which had formed three major clusters of uncivilized in prosperous, but different regions. There were also other clusters being developed elsewhere, but these three showed the most promise yet were different enough from each other to create major cultural variation.

The first was where two rivers had created a fertile region and joined together to form a swamp and river delta. The cultural groups brought together there were nomadic animal herders, fishermen and farmers. mechanica had taught them to drain part of the swamp to get to the very fertile soil below. And they soon worked together so well that they were given the knowledge of masonry and pottery, weaving and leatherwork. Eventually they were led to discover basic metal smelting, and were taught a simple written language, to see if they would develop it. To their surprise, some of them soon showed signs of intellectualism, writing down what had previously been known only as oral knowledge.

The second was also formed around a river in a rich valley. Though it was in the northern region, it was directed by the southern outpost, as it was far to the east, so was much more agrarian in character. This was decided on because the region there was slowly drying out, and eventually this would cause a migration much further to the east. At one point the Samiru mechanica encouraged them to move a city underground, as the Samiru of the time thought it might have a civilizing effect.

The third cluster was in a unique location, a generally dry land with a giant river that would regularly flood both lower banks and its delta extensively once an Urte. This meant that after the waters abated, there would be a grand planting, harvest and storage season, then idleness for the rest of the Urte. A great opportunity to teach and guide them in any number of things.

There was a feeling at the conference that perhaps the uncivilized, who were now properly called semi-civilized, were advancing too rapidly, that it would eventually become obvious that they were being directed from an outside force. Some of their religions were even suggesting such things. So the virtual master Felideer proposed that after getting a personal registration by Gate, that Bizdoatl, after seriously building the energy in his centers and circuits, under the guidance of Dake, gesture consuming a great, but still tiny, part of the unknown in Silence, then use it to justify the rapid leaps of the semi-civilized. Reality would be changed so that an advance that had happened in a short time would appear, and have background evidence, of having come about over many Urte. Felideer assured him that the unknown was capable of rewriting an entire world's history so quickly and completely that no one would remember what it had been the cycle before.

Then, before Bizdoatl disintigrated under the force of the unknown, Gate would restore him to what he was the cycle before. Doable would be operating the primary console to do this, as she was most capable to carry out what Gate described as a considerably more complicated operation. Then she would describe in detail to him what had been accomplished, that he would possibly not remember.

The amount of dancing and other exercises he had to do to build up all those different energies was very taxing and had to be done in isolation. Then in between times, Dake had to give him intense instruction on much higher levels of gesturing, for him to gather what could be described as a world sized piece of the unknown. Only then did the thought cross his mind that this might be a major challenge to the heralds and the beings they served, whose purpose seemed to be to maintain the continuity of this reality itself.

He remembered this when he finally entered Silence only to meet what looked like his identical twin.

Without speaking, it identified itself as a herald with its mind, then said to Bizdoatl that his activities had attracted the attention of its masters, who inquired what his intentions might be. He tried to explain the purpose of Lur and its inhabitants, how it was vital to the health of the entire galaxy, how their evolution had been accelerated, perhaps too rapidly, so that a piece of the unknown was to be used to patch the reality of Lur, to justify their evolution as having taken place at a natural rate.

With very little hesitation, the herald said three things. First, that what Bizdoatl did was inoffensive and acceptable, in that they were of the realm of the inhabitants, not his herald masters. Second, that harvesting such a large piece of the unknown was far beyond his capabilities, so herald will assist him in carrying it out, to prevent damage to this world or him, personally. And third, herald is captivated by all that is going on, so would like to meet with Bizdoatl in the future outside of Silence.

Then it vanished, leaving behind what he perceived to be a small, flying, dull white ball, that he knew contained an immense amount of pure unknown. Events preceded fast from there. He was back in normal reality, the ball descended to the floor before soundlessly exploding to every corner of Lur, and then Gate snatched him.

He awoke in bed in his room, without clothing, next to an equally bare Doable. He did not wait for an explanation, but apologized, and said that we must immediately carry out a world survey to see how things have changed. This is vital and we must do it now. You need to survey the great island, and Ell and his team must perform a survey of all the other land masses and uncivilized and semi-civilized as soon as possible. Document every detail and provide it to Twell Miergo. Within half a cycle she completely understood why he was so hurried. It was like they were on another world.

To start with, the energy barrier around the great island was gone, and there were large numbers of semi-civilized but apparently peaceful scattered about on the great island. Ell reported that many other such were living in formerly uninhabited places on the land masses and on many islands. Their total numbers had jumped and they had seemingly built great edifices. Or the unknown had built them, but those living there thought they had. There were now more than a handful of cities. It had even made ruins from civilizations that had never been.

What was very surprising were the great stone edifices that had appeared. A thousand Urte or more evolution in a moment. Various mechanica were cataloguing hundreds of developed languages. And wars were breaking out, which the semi-civilized believed were just continuations of older wars. All told, while the unknown had saved them an extraordinary amount of work, just documenting it for Twell would still take Urtes. Perhaps the biggest gap that Bizdoatl noted was that even with all that development, the semi-civilized were still in need of intellectual content. As it was, they were developing elaborate mythologies of gods and demons, but little of these mythical beings interactions with the living. As such they were just descripive, not inspirational.

What was needed was any number of traditions of adventurers and explorers traveling to unknown lands seeing great sights, overcoming obstacles and achieving glory. Without a long culture of this, how could they develop into beings that could travel to a multitude of worlds and negate the bad effects of magic?

So he put in a request to Twell, to compose a great library of stories that could be spread among them, with the idea of inspiring them to not just imagine such adventures, but to want to follow in their path. Stories that would blend in with with their existing cultures and languages, to be trickled out to them over the course of many Urtes. Perhaps they will even learn to compose their own adventure tales, real and imagined.

Those of, by and for, he said, with a flash of inspiration, the Lurians. Those born of and raised on Lur.

Though they were all of a kind, Bizdoatl was impressed that the unknown had also accelerated their adaptation to the energy centers and circuits of Lur, based on the lands in which they lived, so that their individuals in one region looked different from those of other regions.

Caught up in this flood of work, Bizdoatl was surprised to get a message from Dame Kaede. She, on a Samiru world, was rather bored, a bodyguard among pacifists being a dull line of work. However, she was able to live vicariously through her reproduction, whose life had become far more entertaining. The world she had been moved to was generally enjoyable, but with enough problems for her to want to make a new sword, which while nothing compared to her sun sword, was many generations more advanced than any sword in that world, non-magical or magical, even though it was half sized for her young body. She also knew fighting techniques far beyond what their best fighters knew. She went on at length of how some group, she didn't know if they were a tribe, a religious sect, or slavers, had tried to kidnap her, or maybe just wanted to steal her sword. She hadn't had that much fun in ages, though that group were much the worse for wear after the fact. As a whim, she didn't even kill any of them, just beat them so badly that they would never attack a young girl again.

Shortly thereafter, Bizdoatl saw what he thought was a mechanica in the base, but looking rather unkempt. He was the ex-mechanica that had been converted to a living being as an experiment. While at at first it had been extremely painful, before he was corrected, it was much better now, but he, and his superior mechanica were at a loss as to what he was to do with him. He could no longer carry out his duties as a mechanica, being far less capable, but also needed frequent, almost constant maintenance. How does a living being ever get anything done?

Bizdoatl realized that the domains of mechanica and living beings are truly separate, and while this ex-mechanica liked his new life, he had much to learn. For this reason, Bizdoatl transferred him to be an assistant to the command staff for the dual purpose of teaching him how to live, and to show Doable what life may be like if she decided to become a living being herself. This put Bizdoatl in the odd predicament that in addition to a great amount of work in his assignment, and still learning non-magic himself, he would need to teach it as well to this assistant. But first of all, his previous mechanica class just used mechanica identification numbers, which were quite long, so only advanced mechanica were given proper names. And since he could no longer send or receive a large number, Bizdoatl had to select a name for him.

Initially he thought his last name should be Lurian, since his living form was created here, but that might create some confusion with the semi-civilized Lurians. So he settled on creating a family name for ex-mechanica who became living beings on Lur of Dahama, and this one's personal name as Kanda.

Kanda Dahama. The ex-mechanica liked it, and the other mechanica were put at ease as well, being able to act with him as they acted around other intelligent living beings.


	8. Chapter 8

Doable was another matter. With such a huge workload, she kept her growing number of mechanica, many of whom were newly assembled, productive at all times. She also coordinated with Ell Redoubt about external matters, on the great island, on the other land masses, the two outposts, all the deployments of wise elders mechanica, and something new, the creation of an emergency outpost built in the rock of a frozen extreme of the planet, where no uncivilized or semi-civilized would or could go. This was a recent decision, made after what was now being thought of as the reassortment of Lur by the unknown, because of the appearance of semi-civilized on the great island. And even with this workload, Doable still reassigned Chielena Lethe to work with Ell Redoubt, as a favor to both.

In any event, Bizdoatl had to make it clear to her that Kanda Dahama would be his personal assistant on the command staff, and not report to her, as there was no way he could meet her work standards, so he would only get in her way. He had no way of knowing that she had become almost resentful of work that removed her from his presence, and was starting to feel jealous of Kanda both for being a living being and for getting attention from Bizdoatl.

That aside, her frequent briefings of the enormous changes on Lur since the reassortment were so heavy with new information that they were going on for half a cycle. The place of the great river, the rich valley, and the two rivers, selected for observation by the Samiru, were rapidly taking on the attributes of civilizations. Yet they were not alone as other places were independently doing their own advances, if not as rapidly. Thresholds were reached which had been set for the deployment of numbers vast domestic animals that the semi-civilized would now raise instead of just slaughter offhand, and wild large animals, to balance the vast numbers of small animals, so now Lur was seeing animal life not seen in such profusion since before the last world sterilization. Most of their kinds imported from every corner of the empire, then preserved and bred to substantially increase their numbers in virtual worlds before becoming real here.

But this again raised the question of whether the Lurians were developing too rapidly. The debate over this continued without resolution to the day when a herald, looking like Bizdoatl's twin, made an appearance outside their volcano base, asking to be allowed in. Doable lost her composure as to how anything could get on to the great island without her knowing about it, before Bizdoatl calmed her down, and said that the herald operated on an entirely different level, was ridiculously powerful, should be greeted in a relaxed manner, and enjoyed food and drink refreshment, which should be available to them as soon as they could.

He personally greeted the herald and invited him in, guiding him to a lounge area where a selection of foods and drinks was hastily being provided. He had quite an appetite and found everything delicious, except for some green fruits harvested too early. He especially savored the drinks. But the purpose of his visit was to exchange a lot of information.

Everything he said about post-reassortment Lur he wanted balanced with stories from the empire and the galaxy as a whole, of which he knew nothing from current times. Bizdoatl explained that while what he knew had already changed because of the magic collapse in the empire and other empires in the region, he knew a being that watched the changes and could explain what was taking place right then.

The herald found it fascinating. He asked about the relationship between Bizdoatl's party, the Samiru, and the armada. The purposes of the Samiru, and he believed of Bizdoatl's party were known to the heralds and their masters, and wanting to use Lur for the same goal as that of the creators was not objectionable to them. But was the armada associated with them, and what was its goal? Bizdoatl said that he was unsure of its origins or purpose, as it had either been sent from a collapsed part of his empire, or another empire, but the Samiru assumed it had hostile, or very hostile intentions, not just to them, and to the newly arrived Bizdoatl and party, but even to Lur itself.

The herald said that neither his peers nor their master or masters were involved in that fight, that Lur itself had directed the destruction of the armada. So we had no idea if its actions were justified. Our best guess was that it was, said Bizdoatl. However, he continued, we took some actions to convince everyone else that they should never again attempt such a thing, or even hazard to come anywhere near Lur in the future. So there is likely no more threat of invaders for a very long time.

After the preliminaries, the herald then went into detail about many of the changes wrought by the unknown. It was exceptionally thorough, he said. For example, throughout the world, buried in the ground and even the rock, were enough remains and artifacts to establish that what had actually taken place quickly over hundreds or a few thousand Urte, happened over a vast length of time, slowly and gradually.

Does the unknown have a mind directing it, to achieve a worldwide deception?, asked Bizdoatl.

I do not think so, not in the unknown. If there is an intelligence, it likely exists in the unknowable, yet can work using and through the unknown. But that is something that is unwise to dwell on, replied the herald. However, when civilizations arise here and seek answers, there will be answers for them to find, and this will increase their confidence and willingness to explore. Amazing, replied Bizdoatl.

Bizdoatl then asked a mechanica in attendance to get a map of all of Lur. The herald was impressed, never having seen such a thing as a map. After explaining it to him, heclosely scrutinized it, andpointed out where the great cities were coming about, and why each one was unique. All too soon there will be nations and conflicts, assuming that powerful leaders rise up. Bizdoatl then raised the idea of breeding crosses between Lurians and other beings from the empire, born and raised by mechanica to create exemplary leaders that would only last one lifetime and not make offspring of their own. They would be so superior in some ways to native Lurians they would seem to be demigods. Their myths would steer their people for many generations.

Bizdoatl then checked himself, and cautiously said he hoped that none of this was offensive in any way to the heralds or their masters. As far as the heralds are concerned, no, but our masters do no follow rules understandable by living beings, so our relationships with them are one-sided. Yet let me reemphasize that I feel uncomfortable saying most anything about them.

Bizdoatl then asked about the unknown, noting how fast the uncivilized and semi-civilized were becoming civilized, he was concerned that it all was happening too quickly, and would it be wise to use the unknown again, to slow the rate of change, lest it become chaotic and unstable? For once, the herald had to pause to consider his answer.

Eventually, perhaps, he replied, but with considerably more caution. Much of Lur was patched by the last time, often small areas with large patches. But if an event like that, of that scale, happened again too soon, it might rip off many of these patches, leaving gaping holes in reality. I doubt the herald's masters would approve of this. If there is some other way to slow them down, perhaps wars or natural disasters, that would be preferable. The best of all would be the use of persuasion. I am inclined to agree with the idea of the risk of their too rapid development, so I will advocate that if the heralds and masters accept using a major patch with the unknown, it would be best if we are the ones to use it.

With this, accepting the idea of a return visit sooner rather than later, so as to keep events on Lur manageable, the herald then asked to excuse himself for his regular duties. As with the time this or another herald had met with the Samiru, Bizdoatl was left with many questions he wished he had asked. But he noted this meeting down as the start of the age of kingdoms.

Three of the four greatest of the dozen or so kingdoms were those suggested by the Samiru. As expected, the kingdom of the great river had built the most great edifices, based on the far more basic ones created for them by the unknown. Yet there was much to complement the land of the two rivers and the fertile valley for as well. And while there was some commerce, there was not enough exploration and adventure. But the uncivilized lust for aggression and conflict and war was still in abundance. The fourth kingdom was rather a cluster of kingdoms far removed from others, but with the potential to unify into a very large kingdom.

Yet on a different land mass, a wholly different phenomenon was taking place. The great kingdoms so far had dispensed with most non-magic, more or less, choosing instead to focus all their attention on rigidly staying on the point of reason, and in doing so were moving towards a classical model of civilization. But on the other land mass, non-magic was again being embraced and developed, resulting in a different kind of civilization, a non-technological civilization.

Oddly enough, not all of the uncivilized and semi-civilized living there were part of this. Bizdoatl suspected that this was because the non-magic users had become so capable, that like magic users they had begun to specialize into professional classes restricted to their own group. Finally, in the pursuit of new knowledge, they had been making forays into the unknown. But at the same time others in their region had no knowledge or interest in non-magic. This may prove interesting to watch. So he spent much of his time behind a gate console, surrounded by mechanica, doing much the same thing in their own areas of observation of Lur.

It was not long at all before some of the non-magic civilization had somehow learned to cross the great water and began setting up some small settlements on the land mass of reason. The Lurians in that new home did not accept the interlopers, and protected by their rigid reason, when not fighting with each other they took to exterminating the new ones, creating a mythology of what they called evil ones.

Bizdoatl noted that it seemed to be a contest, with the non-magic users trying to manipulate the others into dangerously experiencing the unknown, and those fixated on reason refusing to be manipulated while attacking the non-magic users with ordinary weapons. There was a profound lesson here, and Bizdoatl discussed it at length with the other principals.

In the meantime, the non-magical civilization began doing some very dangerous things. One of these was their discovery that with intense focus, physical objects could be imbued with so much of the unknown that they would become aware. Exclusively, such objects would become powerful weapons against other such weapons and non-magic users in life or death contests of power. Since some of these weapons had this done to them over the entire life of powerful non-magic users, they even represented a threat to Bizdoatl. However, to come under their sway, he would have had to discover one and keep it on his person for days. Yet were he in the area of one, he would find it irresistibly attractive.

He discovered this when the same or another herald paid a visit, and told him of it. He said that while the creation of such weapons, while obviously hazardous, was acceptable to his masters, something else the non-magical civilization was doing was not. Within several buildings they were creating maps to increasingly deep and powerful layers within the unknown. At least this is what it appeared to be on the surface. In truth these buildings were traps, designed to capture and consume those who sought power. And with each individual they consumed, they would create cavernous breaches in the unknown.

For this reason, the herald's masters had determined that the non-magical civilization had to be destroyed. To carry this out, they had led the other uncivilized and semi-civilized, who were unaware of non-magic to attack and destroy them. As powerful as the non-magical ones were, their destroyers were indifferent to it and would use ordinary weapons.

However, once this was done, they requested that Bizdoatl send Ell Redout there to destroy the interiors containing the maps. He is one of the few beings capable of doing so without being destroyed himself by the incredible forces within. And once he has returned, a herald has been instructed to use another major patch of the unknown. While centered there, its reverberations will be felt around Lur like the last one. So there will be another immense reassortment, and hopefully not too many of the existing patches will fail.

Bizdoatl was very concerned by all of this, having seen the consequences of the first reassortment, and asked if there was a way to shield members of his team from the effects of the unknown. His response was couched in such a way that it gave Bizdoatl an idea. So he asked the herald what he knew of the large body in orbit around Lur. A thoroughly inhospitable place, existing solely as a shield for Lur, but mostly unused for that purpose for a very long time. Otherwise it was mostly inert, though used as a lesser diety, good or bad, by the various Lurians.

After the herald's departure, Bizdoatl contacted Twell Miergo to request a superior design for an elaborate, self-sustaining base inside this inhospitable body. Twell outdid himself and created a plan for a world within that orbiting rock that could last many thousands of Urtes with minimal maintenance, assuming there was no great collision with a massive body. His plan was to find out if the assertion of creation from the gate mechanism was true, that it could create such a facility and all the supplies and support it would need.

It took him a long time to figure out how to convert Twell's design into one the Gate mechanism could use. Almost immediately the Gate noticed several major problems. These included a much better power supply of an unknown nature that Twell got very excited about, stable artificial attraction so that those who went there would be of the same weight as when they were on Lur, much better shielding against radiation, again of great interest to Twell, and several Gate consoles so they would not be stranded. Once created, those within, if originals, would be protected from the blast of unknown; and if duplicates, could be compared for any differences to those left behind on Lur.

Once Gate was told to execute, it took just a few moments for the new base to become real. Once a clone of a simple mechanica was transported there to verify all that the base was and did, it returned to present only tiny differences between it and its original. So Bizdoatl directed that all essential mechanica and his own reproduction be sent there for safety reasons. Gate remarked that since Ell Redoubt was going into great hazard to destroy the interiors of the forbidden buildings, that when sending his reproduction there he would also coat the original with an extra layer of protection.

As soon as Ell had finished smashing the maps, he was whisked away by Gate and brought back to the primary base. Shortly thereafter the wave from the unknown hit. Whereas the first wave had completely rewritten Lur, its effects seemed more gentle in retrospect. Not only did the wave hit the Lurians hard, but even a few of the mechanica who had not returned to the northern outpost in time just ceased to exist. And the outpost itself now had small villages on its protective mountain, enough so that continued operations there were no longer practicable. So a gate exchange was ordered, in which after the living things were moved to the great island base, the outpost would be moved into the same mountain as the emergency base of the frozen extreme, making it into a fully operational based away from any interference for the time being. At the same time, a great amount of rock would fill the void left by the northern outpost, to preclude a mountain collapse.

And there was now a new problem. When some of the first wave patches were torn away, a number of monstrous beings called stobors were able enter Lur from the unknown. Fortunately all of the larger ones were quickly exteminated and burned, likely by the heralds or their masters, or something, but a small number of lesser ones managed to get away.

The immediate survey of the Lurians was shocking. A multitude of kingdoms had risen and fallen, as well as great empires. War was great and small, but ubiquitous. None of it had actually taken place, but it was now the history of Lur, and the artificial evidence was beyond question in its authenticity. There were now many different kinds of deadly projectile weapons and industries. Many of Twell's writings had survived and were called literature. Exploration and adventure as well as colonization and conquest were seen as noble endeavors by the Lurians who carried them out, if not by those oppressed by them. It was noted that though the cross breeding of Lurians with superior beings from the empire had not taken place, enigmatically there were myths of them having existed in many cultures.

His contact with the reproductions on the orbiting body was a great relief to both groups. The away group were relieved that the group on Lur were unharmed, given their observational devices had closely watched and recorded the great second reassortment. It was fortunate that Twell was between empires so had much more available time to pour through the incredible amount of data.

The away Bizdoatl then confided in the original that because there was so much less to do on the orbiting body, that he and Doable were now living as mates, the same as with Ell Redoubt and Chilena Lethe, who were also a couple. However, he cautioned, my Doable strongly recommends that you do not mention this to your Doable, Ell or Chilena, as even in the most relaxed of settings her emotional cascade was so strong that it almost caused her to shut down. And with the high volume of work your Doable is doing, it would almost certainly cause her much harm. While mechanica are close to living beings, living Scubausuc have special mechanisms to prevent harm from their extraordinary emotions, that mechanica do not have.

But this being said, we do have Gate observational capabilities here, in addition to our orbital observations, so we should be able to take over some of your work. The Bizdoatl on Lur was grateful and pondered if Gate could make a lot more higher level mechanica, but then reconsidered, that the Lurians would have to do much of their evolution on their own, only fine tuned to eventually be sent forth to other worlds.

And how do we get them ready to do that?, he asked himself.


	9. Chapter 9

He went into a long, dreamless sleep, the first he had in a long time. The next star cycle, he had just finished his second meal when the entire orbiting body was rattled as if it had been struck by a giant rock at high speed. It has begun, he said to himself. The creation of a unified, living Pronoea had taken six star cycles. So how long will this take?

Ell Redoubt presented Bizdoatl with the only data from the event. The observational mechanica had not just melted, but the material they were made from had changed character so much that it disintegrated when exposed to light. Likewise the shielded storage had been destroyed, but a single image was recovered from it. It showed what looked like two images of Lur with one superimposed but offset over the other. Of little insight or use.

It was again some time before they were able to look outside of their base. The first indication came from Twell, who had been unable to reach them or his other communications relays in the area because of indeterminate interference, which had quickly started and just as quickly dissipated after many star cycles. He said he eagerly awaited new data from Lur as it came it.

New, but occupied world reconnaissance was a very ritualized process, having been practiced so much that even in a case as radical as this, ideas from other situations could be pieced together. It was with considerable relief that it was noted that the Lurian geography had not greatly changed, Though both the main base and the frozen extreme base were still there, the main had experienced a partial collapse so direct access to gate had been closed, and was solely by console. The large, frozen base seemed unharmed, and far away from even technically advanced Lurians, so it was chosen to be the new base.

The biggest changes were in the Lurians themselves. Now fully civilized and technologically developed, they had no idea of what had happened to them. They thought their civilization was ancient, lasting thousands of Urtes, with continuity since those times. Ell Redoubt suggested that the best way to get their perspective would be to obtain one of their libraries for transmission to Twell.

Instead of by ordinary means, it was decided to locate the top libraries of Lur with gate, and transmit identical substitutes of them to a virtual world. Then Twell would provide a legion of mechanica scholars to examine, record and study them. Taking place in a virtual world this would happen much faster than it could happen in reality. And if there were institutions other than libraries full of useful data, they could be added to the virtual world later.

This set Bizdoatl to thinking, so he asked gate if he had done similar projects before, perhaps for the creators. Yes, but unused virtual worlds tend to decay over time, so what they had made no longer exists.

Twell later said that it was the most enjoyment he had in a very long time. He then went into a briefing about the rise of a new empire to replace the old one. The efforts of the eru masters, their students, and their peers at other erus had mitigated much of the death and suffering. And they created a strict regime of limits for the use of magic as well as education in the use of non-magic and technologies, in the troubled times before a new empire was formed. Yet they noted that without Lurians, these fixes would not last for very long. Lurians were the key, that by being so incredibly strong in magic, they would overwhelm all challengers to the point that entire worlds would instead learn and use non-magic and technology to overcome what the Lurians had been.

Few worlds had challengers worthy of Lurians, but gate could manufacture what was needed, be it giant monsters, hordes of smaller monsters, elaborate quests, even armies of undead in temples and dungeons that could march on their own. Things that would bring forth terror, even if not much actual threat, in the natives of those worlds, solely for something for the Lurian to defeat, as they had in their games.

Twell then mentioned a new study, of non-magic, the Lurians had developed, that in some ways is very close to magic in its outcomes, if not its process. Originally it could be called alchemy, but is no longer called that, and was based on the different natural rules found at different levels at much smaller scales than those of the sub-visuals. As magic diffuses to a world and its users from its magical barrier, alchemy makes very small holes in reality at very low levels, allowing a tiny amount of unknown to enter and change a very small amount of reality into something unreal, or different. But importantly, the process is scalable. To explain, imagine a great pile of sand. If you turn a single grain into something different, with a single tiny hole in reality, it likely won't matter. But if you turn the innumerable grains of sand in that pile into that same unknown in the world all at once, using an equal number of tiny holes, in a generally stable way, you will have accomplished alchemy.

The Lurians have already used this non-magic in many ways, and created things not found elsewhere in the galaxy. Unnatural materials, some with interesting properties, most not unique enough to be other than just noted as a permutation. Most at the upper level below the scale of sub-visuals. At the level lower than that, alchemy produces weird fluxes between the physical and the energetic. Definitely noteworthy. And at even lower scales it involves the interactions with cosmic forces.

All told, these alchemies are fascinating and dangerous, and it essential that their work be studied, apart from whatever else we are doing. Most of all, a new eru needs to be established to examine how these things interrelate. If I can round up a collection of reproductions of top masters, I would ask that a virtual eru planet be created by gate to do this research in virtual time, later testing their theories on real worlds.

About this time, Bizdoatl received a dream communication from one of the Samiru worlds. They indicated that the being known as the survivor had detected the use of the unknowable by the Lurians, even at a great distance, and urgently desired to communicate with him. He did not want to return to Lur, and did not imaging Bizdoatl wishing to leave it, so he has asked the Samiru to communicate his statement to Bizdoatl in dreams.

Without delay, he spoke in historical terms. The empire you called the creators was truly amazing to my eyes. In their time I was little more than an amusing beast kept by one of them, that though an astoundingly powerful being, was just a child to them. A companion of this being, I was ignored by others than my master. For some reason I traveled with my master to Lur. The beings of the third iteration of Lur were ferocious. Unmanageable. The creators went there to decide whether or not to wipe them out and start over once again.

However, the beings of Lur had become the ultimate expression of violence and war, and they had learned to consume more and more of the unknown to make themselves stronger, to the point that, even unknown to the creators, a few of the more disciplined beings had learned how to access the unknowable. But as a being would reach into the unknowable, the unknowable would reach into them. From that point, eventually the being would fully enter into the unknowable, evolving beyond life and perception itself, while retaining its awareness, if an entirely different awareness. This was something beyond even the experience of the creators, and it sealed their destruction.

The creators had decided to once again sterilize Lur. To flood it and destroy the beings of Lur as the creators would flee the world. For some reason my master was forbidden to take me with them, and so she wrapped me in glass, putting me inside a high mountain she hoped, in her childlike way, would protect me until she returned. I was safe, but only able to use my mind to witness.

But the disciplined of the beings of Lur struck first. As soon as the creators started the great flood, pieces of the unknowable, unshielded by the unknown, appeared on every creator world and near every other creator. Then all the beings of Lur that had been touched by the unknowable vanished, those untouched by the unknowable were cooked in boiling water, and every creator, no matter where they were, were torn apart by the raw forces of the unknowable.

Still in the dream, the survivor paused for a moment that Bizdoatl interpreted as sadness, before saying that he thought it was all over, with the destruction of all of it. But some-thing or perhaps the world of Lur itself remembered how to access the unknowable, from within or without it does not matter.

For this reason you must remember that the defenses of Lur are absolute. With such might it is, and remains, the center of the galaxy. Any fool that attacks Lur courts disaster beyond imagination, and its response is beyond your control, so you must do everything in your power to fend off any fool who seeks to do so, no matter how omnipotent they imagine themselves to be.

There was little or no commentary about this from the virtual masters, Twell or even gate. It was a great relief when just a few days later, Twell forwarded him a message from the Dame Kaede who was the bodyguard. After long negotiations, a new empire that was growing to replace the old empire, give or take, and had invited the princesses and other nobles of the old empire to join them.

Young empires have their own problems. Because of the efforts of the old masters and their students, and with the assistance of Twell, the new empire had a far more balanced approach to magic, non-magic, technology and even the alchemy invented by the Lurians. Skill in one was no longer seen as being greater than the others. And this meant that societal advance was in all fronts. The great eru worlds had been reestablished, though with a new order reflecting their varied colleges of study.

For the first time, Bizdoatl wondered about his old world and kind, and was pleasantly surprised that they had created a local eru in his honor, dedicated to repair, maintenance, and process. Without easy magic to repair and fix and document it all, graduates found more employment and prosperity throughout the empire.

Eventually, though, Lur was bound to become a subject of debate in the new empire. As far as spacefarers were concerned, it was still mythically anathema. But located on the periphery of the new empire, other empires and even smugglers saw it as a blind spot in the empire's defenses. So eventually, a very cocky warship Captain decided to see if the legends were true. His ship, the Ussphere, was the most advanced vessel out there, very fast with magical, non-magical and technological engines that could work together or independently.

But there is nothing like a real command in a newer ship with a green crew to take a lot of the edge off of cockiness. Which is why in the ancient past, some senior Admiral had ordered that brash young command officers be discreetly encouraged to take their children with them on their shakedown cruise, as a perquisite of their new authority, so that the odds of their return with living crew and undamaged ships would improve. He was a wise Admiral.

So, after two close calls, one at a very dangerous spatial anomaly called Sworn Omens-A, known for wrecking lesser ships, the Captain became a lot more cautious about those around him, including his daughter. Thus he decided to visit the Lur system, having heard some of the more farcical tall tales surrounding it, as a safer, if still groundbreaking and useful expedition, knowledge filling that gap in the empire's defenses.

Before he could enter the system, however, he first encountered the beacon system established by Twell to ward off the curious and criminal, which broadcast a long message to him using the authority of the old empire and citing extensive imaginary bureaucratic and legal regulations and liabilities written to be opaque. In truth, this was a trick so that Twell's communication system could notify interested parties and give them time to prepare.

Still somewhat determined to enter the system, if just to look around, the Captain then stopped his ship again after receiving an audio communique, very scripted by Twell, from Bizdoatl himself, identified as the "Duty Defense Coordinator" for Lur, but also authorized to speak as a diplomat.

He then explained, without being too specific, that the Lurian system, and the world itself were filled with deadly dangers, only the least of which the Lurians were able to control, and so the system was, and would necessarily remain, unapproachable and could not be safely transited. He then explained that it would hardly be persuasive without some demonstration, and he hoped that the Captain would accommodate him in this to his own satisfaction.

For this, he selected a large, rocky body, many times the size and mass of the Ussphere, and requested that the Captain dispatch a survey crew there to determine that it was indeed nothing more than a rocky mass. Somewhat puzzled, the Captain sent a small craft of mostly mechanica there, lead by a junior officer. With their instrumentation, magic and non-magic they quickly divined that it was indeed just a rocky body, with nothing artificial or magical on or in it.

After they returned, Bizdoatl then said to the Captain, now watch. One instant it was there, and the next it just vanished. Without missing a beat, Bizdoatl then extended an offer of peaceful diplomatic relations between the new empire and Lur. Trying very hard to maintain his equanimity, the Captain said a bit too loudly where did it go? Not entirely sure, replied Bizdoatl, "Captain Isstil".

This trick, performed with the help of Twell, who had obtained a personnel roster of the Ussphere from the new empire's military system, about pushed the captain over the brink, so Bizdoatl finished off by saying to please remember our offer for peaceful diplomatic relations. See you soon. Bizdoatl figured it would be rude to pull a hat trick on the Captain, to tell him that the junior officer sent on the away team's sister had given birth to a healthy baby female, named Ibid.

The speed by which the Ussphere returned to port was not matched for many Urtes.

After extensive debriefing of the entire crew in the empire's capital, his life became both simple and complicated. At first he was confined to the officer's quarters, but as rumors spread among civilian and military spacefarers that he and his ship had periled and survived both Sworn Omens-A and Lurian space, much of which was discreetly spread by Twell, he was promoted to Commodore. And though unenthusiastic about the job, he was given the unique title of Commodore-Ambassador to Lur.

The problem with this was there was no embassy on Lur, which meant his job was by remote communications and very heavy on administration. To his relief, he was soon replaced by a professional diplomatic staff. His story did not end there, though. Because of the profitability of the data trade with Lur, a rather one sided transfer, he was again promoted and made Admiral of the empire's newest and largest capital spacecraft.


	10. Chapter 10

He went into a long, dreamless sleep, the first he had in a long time. The next star cycle, he had just finished his second meal when the entire orbiting body was rattled as if it had been struck by a giant rock at high speed. It has begun, he said to himself. The creation of a unified, living Pronoea had taken six star cycles. So how long will this take?

Ell Redoubt presented Bizdoatl with the only data from the event. The observational mechanica had not just melted, but the material they were made from had changed character so much that it disintegrated when exposed to light. Likewise the shielded storage had been destroyed, but a single image was recovered from it. It showed what looked like two images of Lur with one superimposed but offset over the other. Of little insight or use.

It was again some time before they were able to look outside of their base. The first indication came from Twell, who had been unable to reach them or his other communications relays in the area because of indeterminate interference, which had quickly started and just as quickly dissipated after many star cycles. He said he eagerly awaited new data from Lur as it came it.

New, but occupied world reconnaissance was a very ritualized process, having been practiced so much that even in a case as radical as this, ideas from other situations could be pieced together. It was with considerable relief that it was noted that the Lurian geography had not greatly changed, Though both the main base and the frozen extreme base were still there, the main had experienced a partial collapse so direct access to gate had been closed, and was solely by console. The large, frozen base seemed unharmed, and far away from even technically advanced Lurians, so it was chosen to be the new base.

The biggest changes were in the Lurians themselves. Now fully civilized and technologically developed, they had no idea of what had happened to them. They thought their civilization was ancient, lasting thousands of Urtes, with continuity since those times. Ell Redoubt suggested that the best way to get their perspective would be to obtain one of their libraries for transmission to Twell.

Instead of by ordinary means, it was decided to locate the top libraries of Lur with gate, and transmit identical substitutes of them to a virtual world. Then Twell would provide a legion of mechanica scholars to examine, record and study them. Taking place in a virtual world this would happen much faster than it could happen in reality. And if there were institutions other than libraries full of useful data, they could be added to the virtual world later.

This set Bizdoatl to thinking, so he asked gate if he had done similar projects before, perhaps for the creators. Yes, but unused virtual worlds tend to decay over time, so what they had made no longer exists.

Twell later said that it was the most enjoyment he had in a very long time. He then went into a briefing about the rise of a new empire to replace the old one. The efforts of the eru masters, their students, and their peers at other erus had mitigated much of the death and suffering. And they created a strict regime of limits for the use of magic as well as education in the use of non-magic and technologies, in the troubled times before a new empire was formed. Yet they noted that without Lurians, these fixes would not last for very long. Lurians were the key, that by being so incredibly strong in magic, they would overwhelm all challengers to the point that entire worlds would instead learn and use non-magic and technology to overcome what the Lurians had been.

Few worlds had challengers worthy of Lurians, but gate could manufacture what was needed, be it giant monsters, hordes of smaller monsters, elaborate quests, even armies of undead in temples and dungeons that could march on their own. Things that would bring forth terror, even if not much actual threat, in the natives of those worlds, solely for something for the Lurian to defeat, as they had in their games.

Twell then mentioned a new study, of non-magic, the Lurians had developed, that in some ways is very close to magic in its outcomes, if not its process. Originally it could be called alchemy, but is no longer called that, and was based on the different natural rules found at different levels at much smaller scales than those of the sub-visuals. As magic diffuses to a world and its users from its magical barrier, alchemy makes very small holes in reality at very low levels, allowing a tiny amount of unknown to enter and change a very small amount of reality into something unreal, or different. But importantly, the process is scalable. To explain, imagine a great pile of sand. If you turn a single grain into something different, with a single tiny hole in reality, it likely won't matter. But if you turn the innumerable grains of sand in that pile into that same unknown in the world all at once, using an equal number of tiny holes, in a generally stable way, you will have accomplished alchemy.

The Lurians have already used this non-magic in many ways, and created things not found elsewhere in the galaxy. Unnatural materials, some with interesting properties, most not unique enough to be other than just noted as a permutation. Most at the upper level below the scale of sub-visuals. At the level lower than that, alchemy produces weird fluxes between the physical and the energetic. Definitely noteworthy. And at even lower scales it involves the interactions with cosmic forces.

All told, these alchemies are fascinating and dangerous, and it essential that their work be studied, apart from whatever else we are doing. Most of all, a new eru needs to be established to examine how these things interrelate. If I can round up a collection of reproductions of top masters, I would ask that a virtual eru planet be created by gate to do this research in virtual time, later testing their theories on real worlds.

About this time, Bizdoatl received a dream communication from one of the Samiru worlds. They indicated that the being known as the survivor had detected the use of the unknowable by the Lurians, even at a great distance, and urgently desired to communicate with him. He did not want to return to Lur, and did not imaging Bizdoatl wishing to leave it, so he has asked the Samiru to communicate his statement to Bizdoatl in dreams.

Without delay, he spoke in historical terms. The empire you called the creators was truly amazing to my eyes. In their time I was little more than an amusing beast kept by one of them, that though an astoundingly powerful being, was just a child to them. A companion of this being, I was ignored by others than my master. For some reason I traveled with my master to Lur. The beings of the third iteration of Lur were ferocious. Unmanageable. The creators went there to decide whether or not to wipe them out and start over once again.

However, the beings of Lur had become the ultimate expression of violence and war, and they had learned to consume more and more of the unknown to make themselves stronger, to the point that, even unknown to the creators, a few of the more disciplined beings had learned how to access the unknowable. But as a being would reach into the unknowable, the unknowable would reach into them. From that point, eventually the being would fully enter into the unknowable, evolving beyond life and perception itself, while retaining its awareness, if an entirely different awareness. This was something beyond even the experience of the creators, and it sealed their destruction.

The creators had decided to once again sterilize Lur. To flood it and destroy the beings of Lur as the creators would flee the world. For some reason my master was forbidden to take me with them, and so she wrapped me in glass, putting me inside a high mountain she hoped, in her childlike way, would protect me until she returned. I was safe, but only able to use my mind to witness.

But the disciplined of the beings of Lur struck first. As soon as the creators started the great flood, pieces of the unknowable, unshielded by the unknown, appeared on every creator world and near every other creator. Then all the beings of Lur that had been touched by the unknowable vanished, those untouched by the unknowable were cooked in boiling water, and every creator, no matter where they were, were torn apart by the raw forces of the unknowable.

Still in the dream, the survivor paused for a moment that Bizdoatl interpreted as sadness, before saying that he thought it was all over, with the destruction of all of it. But some-thing or perhaps the world of Lur itself remembered how to access the unknowable, from within or without it does not matter.

For this reason you must remember that the defenses of Lur are absolute. With such might it is, and remains, the center of the galaxy. Any fool that attacks Lur courts disaster beyond imagination, and its response is beyond your control, so you must do everything in your power to fend off any fool who seeks to do so, no matter how omnipotent they imagine themselves to be.

There was little or no commentary about this from the virtual masters, Twell or even gate. It was a great relief when just a few days later, Twell forwarded him a message from the Dame Kaede who was the bodyguard. After long negotiations, a new empire that was growing to replace the old empire, give or take, and had invited the princesses and other nobles of the old empire to join them.

Young empires have their own problems. Because of the efforts of the old masters and their students, and with the assistance of Twell, the new empire had a far more balanced approach to magic, non-magic, technology and even the alchemy invented by the Lurians. Skill in one was no longer seen as being greater than the others. And this meant that societal advance was in all fronts. The great eru worlds had been reestablished, though with a new order reflecting their varied colleges of study.

For the first time, Bizdoatl wondered about his old world and kind, and was pleasantly surprised that they had created a local eru in his honor, dedicated to repair, maintenance, and process. Without easy magic to repair and fix and document it all, graduates found more employment and prosperity throughout the empire.

Eventually, though, Lur was bound to become a subject of debate in the new empire. As far as spacefarers were concerned, it was still mythically anathema. But located on the periphery of the new empire, other empires and even smugglers saw it as a blind spot in the empire's defenses. So eventually, a very cocky warship Captain decided to see if the legends were true. His ship, the Ussphere, was the most advanced vessel out there, very fast with magical, non-magical and technological engines that could work together or independently.

But there is nothing like a real command in a newer ship with a green crew to take a lot of the edge off of cockiness. Which is why in the ancient past, some senior Admiral had ordered that brash young command officers be discreetly encouraged to take their children with them on their shakedown cruise, as a perquisite of their new authority, so that the odds of their return with living crew and undamaged ships would improve. He was a wise Admiral.

So, after two close calls, one at a very dangerous spatial anomaly called Sworn Omens-A, known for wrecking lesser ships, the Captain became a lot more cautious about those around him, including his daughter. Thus he decided to visit the Lur system, having heard some of the more farcical tall tales surrounding it, as a safer, if still groundbreaking and useful expedition, knowledge filling that gap in the empire's defenses.

Before he could enter the system, however, he first encountered the beacon system established by Twell to ward off the curious and criminal, which broadcast a long message to him using the authority of the old empire and citing extensive imaginary bureaucratic and legal regulations and liabilities written to be opaque. In truth, this was a trick so that Twell's communication system could notify interested parties and give them time to prepare.

Still somewhat determined to enter the system, if just to look around, the Captain then stopped his ship again after receiving an audio communique, very scripted by Twell, from Bizdoatl himself, identified as the "Duty Defense Coordinator" for Lur, but also authorized to speak as a diplomat.

He then explained, without being too specific, that the Lurian system, and the world itself were filled with deadly dangers, only the least of which the Lurians were able to control, and so the system was, and would necessarily remain, unapproachable and could not be safely transited. He then explained that it would hardly be persuasive without some demonstration, and he hoped that the Captain would accommodate him in this to his own satisfaction.

For this, he selected a large, rocky body, many times the size and mass of the Ussphere, and requested that the Captain dispatch a survey crew there to determine that it was indeed nothing more than a rocky mass. Somewhat puzzled, the Captain sent a small craft of mostly mechanica there, lead by a junior officer. With their instrumentation, magic and non-magic they quickly divined that it was indeed just a rocky body, with nothing artificial or magical on or in it.

After they returned, Bizdoatl then said to the Captain, now watch. One instant it was there, and the next it just vanished. Without missing a beat, Bizdoatl then extended an offer of peaceful diplomatic relations between the new empire and Lur. Trying very hard to maintain his equanimity, the Captain said a bit too loudly where did it go? Not entirely sure, replied Bizdoatl, "Captain Isstil".

This trick, performed with the help of Twell, who had obtained a personnel roster of the Ussphere from the new empire's military system, about pushed the captain over the brink, so Bizdoatl finished off by saying to please remember our offer for peaceful diplomatic relations. See you soon. Bizdoatl figured it would be rude to pull a hat trick on the Captain, to tell him that the junior officer sent on the away team's sister had given birth to a healthy baby female, named Ibid.

The speed by which the Ussphere returned to port was not matched for many Urtes.

After extensive debriefing of the entire crew in the empire's capital, his life became both simple and complicated. At first he was confined to the officer's quarters, but as rumors spread among civilian and military spacefarers that he and his ship had periled and survived both Sworn Omens-A and Lurian space, much of which was discreetly spread by Twell, he was promoted to Commodore. And though unenthusiastic about the job, he was given the unique title of Commodore-Ambassador to Lur.

The problem with this was there was no embassy on Lur, which meant his job was by remote communications and very heavy on administration. To his relief, he was soon replaced by a professional diplomatic staff. His story did not end there, though. Because of the profitability of the data trade with Lur, a rather one sided transfer, he was again promoted and made Admiral of the empire's newest and largest capital spacecraft.


	11. Chapter 11

With the discovery of circuitry luck on Pronoea, the export of Lurians to other worlds began in earnest, with pauses for adjustments and every now and then evacuations. For every new scenario, after adequate virtual evaluation, implementation had a high success rate. In many cases, individuals on those worlds even thought they had summoned the Lurian who arrived. Game experts frequently had their physical forms converted to their avatars, as unlikely as many of these seemed to be. Expertise as warriors or mages or others abilities came with the transfer, as well as their hidden skills of non-magic, technology and alchemy, and artificial luck. Likewise, for a suitable candidate to die on Lur meant that gate would make a substitute for their body, then resurrect them in another world, often within moments of their death.

Most importantly, calculations of the galactic magical decay rate slowed substantially, across any number of empires. Bizdoatl had been concerned about how it was working and how long this could continue. Gate volunteered to track these numbers for him, along with most other key processes, so the system could continue to function on automatic, managed by gate, for one thousand or more Urtes.

Yet it was clear that even with regular transfers, there were so very many inhabited worlds in the galaxy that putting even one Lurian on each one would take an impossible length of time at the scale in which they were transferring.

And there were some things that could go wrong. The worst of these was if the Lurians or Lur itself decided to act again. The second was if the masters of the heralds decided to act. Then there were the "unknowns of the known", such as an aggressive empire, or civil war, or something along those lines, an external threat. Then there is a chance of a sector disaster. Finally something within Lur itself that can cause its self destruction or major chaos, like major natural disasters.

And there was an abundance of Lurians. Though only a fraction of them were appropriate to be transferred to other worlds, these numbers still amounted to many thousands each Urte, in a strange pattern across the galaxy. Gate was remarkable in how it selected candidates, and as discreet as possible. It preferred loners who had already adjusted to an asocial life, so had fewer connections on Lur, but were relatively skilled in gaming or adaptable enough to quickly learn the new rules in their new lives. The less capable went to worlds that were more like their own in many ways, even if of a different era. The more capable went where their form could be radically different, such as a realized avatar, with powers equal to those they had in their favorite games, even if those powers had not existed on their new world previously.

But placements by gate seldom failed so much that a transferee had to be recalled to a virtual world and repaired before either being sent back or put on a different world. The very few returned to Lur were so disturbed by their return that they needed to be redeployed so it was only done for grave reasons. Bizdoatl pondered this for some time before wondering if the Lurians inherently wanted to be sent to other worlds.

Since most of his parties activities were now limited to the major base in the frozen extreme and the base on the orbiting body, he happened to be at the latter when he got an urgent message from Doable at the frozen base, to come immediately. He ran to a gate console and entered his destination almost without thought. He arrived to her right, in a room full of what could be described as frightened mechanica, facing off with a group of five Lurians, three female and two males.

Greetings, Master Bizdoatl, a female said, and pardon for any errors in language or formality, as we are new to your language, and know little of your conventions. Then, without pause, she said relax, we mean you no harm. My name is Twilight, and those with me are Dawn, Morning, Day and Evening.

I gather this world is known to you as Lur, and we as Lurians. But we are of a more advanced stage in the evolution of Lurians than most, and more evolved than most living intelligent beings, and we are the models of evolution for other Lurians to follow. And while we truly appreciate all the hard work you and those who preceded you have done on Lur, let us state in advance that it is now time for you to go, to leave Lur forever. At this point, let me suggest that we gather in a meeting area, for we have much to discuss. Please notify concerned individuals to be in attendance. We will be glad to wait here while you summon them.

Most of the mechanica left, and those that remained went into a secure mode, making it much harder for them to be taken over by an outside force. Only Doable, with her heightened Scubausuc emotions seemed to be disturbed. She said to Bizdoatl that while she saw nothing menacing or harmful in the Lurians, she could tell they could and were accessing emotional levels far beyond her abilities. And, she observed, they were aware that she was observing them do this. They likely can play the unknown like a musical instrument, she added, know everything we know, and have powers we cannot imagine.

Bizdoatl reached the conference area, and notified everyone: the virtual masters, the Samiru leader and through him the survivor, Twell Miergo, the away Bizdoatl on Pronoea, Ell Redoubt and Chielena Lethe. He decided not to immediately notify the new imperial ambassador, at least not yet. A smiling herald had shown up unannounced and was already seated. Then the Lurians were invited into the room.

This time their spokesman identified herself as Dawn. After a brief introduction, she then turned to the otherwise invisible Samiru leader, there in his dreaming self, and expressed her gratitude to all the Samiru, before and since, who had worked hard on the behalf of Lur and the Lurians. She especially thanked him for the ancient incorporation of pacifism into their makeup, which finally helped our ancestors to overcome their belligerence enough to survive. And we have asked your dream master ancestors to now join you on your new worlds, to find their rest and peace among your descent, as Lur in its new form will be uncomfortable for them as well. And to the one called the survivor, we say that your creator still lives, in a place beyond time, waiting, that if you someday wish to rejoin her, you may live again with her.

She next turned to herald and said, after consultation with your masters, it has been decided that you heralds may retire, so we suggest joining this group in their departure from Lur. Herald looked surprised, but then his expression changed to resignation. He looked at Bizdoatl who nodded that he was amenable to the idea.

To Twell she expressed first the formal request that his communications array and observation of the star system be discontinued, but then added that Twell's work against the chaos of magic collapse was laudable, as was his long term goal of creating a galactic knowledge base far in the future.

Then Dawn spoke to Ell Redoubt, Chielena Lethe and Doable, with the simple message that you need to become living beings and get married. After a brief pause, she clarified. Marriage means a more formal version of having a mate. It is a Lurian expression. Now it is yours. Bizdoatl was concerned because Doable's face had become flush and he imagined her emotions were stressful.

At that point, another Lurian spoke and identified himself as Morning, before addressing the two Bizdoatls and the virtual masters. Your mission here using gate has been a great success, but is too limited to reach its potential. In the near future, Lurians will no longer need gate, and will select a time and place for their transfer, and travel there on their own volition, so their purpose in the galaxy will continue and accelerate. In a few generations, Lurians will deploy to habitable worlds whose beings are at risk.

There are many options available for the two of you. At our request, gate has reached back in time to when the masters were young and made reproductions of them. Combined with your virtual masters they will live again in a form and place of their choosing. However, at your option they will be removed from your bodies as well, despite being protected from interference.

Given the option, Master Parkdeer and Felideer have said they wish to be transformed into a Felideer god and goddess, as the Felideer empire has lost its momentum and is in decay, and they hope to go there to restore its vitality and spirit.

Dake and Anye Stop want a challenge, to be reborn as childhood friends in a world of weak beings with corrupt leaders, yet to retain their knowledge and abilities, with the idea of redeeming a world of those who are not too smart. But mostly for the love of making mischief.

The virtual Jaldo demurred, as he had already been remade in another form, so was content to continue to serve either or both Bizdoatls, or to be eliminated.

However, before we commence with this, with respect to those who thought to use the great invention that is Lur to protect the galaxy from much harm, you were correct that this was the plan of the creators as well. However, the creators made several serious errors. The first of these was the pursuit of immortality, not just for themselves, but for all who lived in their worlds. In doing so, they greatly enlarged their barrier of magic, so that everything within their worlds was imbued with it. But this also hastened their collapse.

Only when they learned of this impending disaster did they create Lur, which they designed to have no magic, but also to evolve life quickly. To accelerate this the creators used great quantities of magic, but also borrowed great amounts of the unknown, the result of which were vast numbers of terrible monsters. So they sterilized the world. The second time they just used the unknown, not knowing that it, not magic, was what spawned the monsters. Once again the monsters were eliminated. But by the next time, when the creators exclusively used magic, their empire was in full collapse.

The creators who had built Lur had been very clear as to its purpose, which did not include killing its children. So when the last of the creators sought to kill its latest children, those creatures who later evolved into the uncivilized, Lur itself lashed out into the unknowable and killed the killers. And without the involvement of the creators, Lur could evolve is new children, and did so. And thus the Lurians came into being over a long time.

Then the Lurian named Day spoke, and addressed Bizdoatl by name. To you we express our greatest of gratitude, as your choices in pursuit of your mission were exemplary. As a kind, many of us will soon be spreading out in the galaxy, with the training in technology and non-magic and alchemy we need. And once we are in other worlds, knowing of magic we will be far stronger in magic than those who live there.

Our reward for mastery in these things is the understanding that the known is the training ground for the unknown, that we will eventually evolve into entering it fully as individuals. And in turn, the unknown is the training ground for the vastness of the unknowable. Now that Lur knows the process, it will evolve many different kinds to follow that path of the Lurians again and again. And in doing so they as well will limit the crutch of magic, so that other worlds will also evolve as they should without at times dying out.

But this also means that Lur must remain a world forbidden to others. Its entire system will continue to be protected, which is why we ask you to leave. However, as a reward to you for all that you have done, you may take the gate console from your orbiting base with you, so that you may have transit about the galaxy, to any worlds other than Lur. This applies to your other self on Pronoea, as well, who may keep his console.

We have also divined a solution to your problem with your mate Doable. Bizdoatl glanced at her and saw her shocked reaction. While your kind are very long lived, her kind, when alive, do not have such longevity. So with considerable calculation, gate will change both of you into a new kind, a blend of both your kinds. While you likely will not live quite as long as those of your kind, you will have many inheritable talents and gifts not typically found in your kind either. And wherever you choose to go, gate will also provide you with abundant material goods, wealth, and assistants as you desire.

But there is yet another possibility beyond that. While what you and your group accomplished on Lur took a long time, you are still youthful for your kind, so instead of going your separate ways, why not see what can be accomplished elsewhere. While the empire of the creators was great and powerful, they were not alone in the galaxy of that time, and coexisted with four peer empires of equal power, though they are are no longer around. But each of them have left behind mysteries equal to or greater than Lur, either on their homeworld or on worlds in their domain, some of which are inhabited, some are not.

In the age of those empires, only five beings and their entourages were allowed to freely transit among them, the masters of each of the homeworlds and other worlds of the five. They were titled Overlords. So you now are designated by us as having this title, as Overlord of Lur, by default the last homeworld of the empire of the creators, that you and your subordinates may freely explore what remains of these other empires without concern for activating any long dormant defenses by those worlds. However, those living beings on those worlds may neither know or respect your title.

The advantages of doing this are great. Twell will be able to greatly expand his network by sending along mechanica versions of himself, spreading reproductions to network wherever you travel. Your virtual masters may be combined with their earlier versions and remade into your new kind, while retaining their knowledge and skills, and make good allies on your journeys.

Each of these other four empires also had a gate mechanism, and the gate you know has already introduced you to them, so you don't need to worry about a hostile reception, at least from them. And last, it has been made known that your title is a noble title, but an Overlord is not bound to a single empire, so you may meet any imperial family and nobility as a guest without delay, and travel unbound by rules and regulations.

In the time being, we are giving you thirty star cycles to make your preparations to leave from both Lur and your orbiting base. Circumstances are such that at first your entire group here will be transported to a comfortable accommodation in the capital city of your new empire, purchased by Twell Miergo. Someone named Admiral Isstil will meet you there prior to your introduction at the royal court, with the honors accorded a foreign dignitary, and he will provide you with the protocols for the meeting.

Bizdoatl needed much of that time to get used to being half Scubausuc, filled with new emotions, as well as having a living Doable as a mate. Ell Redoubt and Chilena Lethe remained as powerful mechanica for the time being, which would command respect from both living beings and mechanica in the palace. And Dame Kaede and the princesses were strong allies among the nobility, and had spread many tales of adventure and derring-do to their fascination.

For his part, Admiral Isstil had become an expert about the spacefarer tales surrounding Lur, quick to discount the farcical ones, but serious and grave about the real ones. On learning that Bizdoatl was no longer directing its defenses, but that the Lurians were doing so with far more powerful means, he felt a deep shudder and ordered an additional sphere of warning beacons even further away from the Lur system. Any vessel that meandered in that area would be met with an imperial warship. Nobody was going to do anything that might provoke the Lurians that he had never seen, only read about, to start a fight he knew they would win.

His meeting with Bizdoatl was very stressful, made more so because the diplomatic protocol staff had no idea of what an Overlord was. In an inspired bit of mischief, Bizdoatl said it would be appropriate for their majesties to address him, and he them, with just their title in public, and to be on a first name basis in private. Effectively that an Overlord was of near equal rank with an emperor.

Trying to be crafty, a senior staff officer politely inquired about their kind, thinking if they were of a less distinguished kind they could be looked down upon in that way. Thinking quickly, he replied that among the distant ancestors of their unique kind were Scubausuc, not mentioning his own, unremarkable kind. In the new empire, the Scubausuc were seen as some of the highest kind.

But then Bizdoatl realized he hadn't even thought of a name for their new kind, so he changed the subject, which was also to the relief of the staff officer.

Enroute to the imperial palace, with Doable, Ell and Chilena, and individual mechanica Twell of level unknown, and a former herald gawking like a tourist, accompanied by Admiral Isstil, who after all this time couldn't contain himself and asked what had happened to that rocky mass used as his demonstration. Bizdoatl was in a good mood, so told the truth, that the rock had been transported to a virtual reality.

I thought for a while what do do with it. Had it been your ship I probably would have put it into orbit around this world, or parked it in a space dock, but I figured that might embarrass you. It just being a rock, I thought that tossing it into the Lurian star would be wasteful, so after you left I put it back where it belonged, but displaced enough that it would be obvious that it had been moved. While doing so I had a memorial built that would attract the attention of someone in a small vessel that had evaded the warning beacons. It contains the ship's plaque of the Meduase.

That actually happened?, asked the Admiral. Yes, and so did the annihilation of the armada. The epic poem about those is generally accurate. But they are just two of the library of stories from Lur. We did record a great amount of data in our time, but within a short time after our departure, everything could change there into something very different. Our message about Lur is simple, it is a precious gem within the boundaries of this empire, and it is working tirelessly to save the galaxy, but one that should not be gazed at too much, and is deadly to the touch.


	12. Chapter 12

On their entrance in the palace, a courtier directed them to a refreshment area with light food and drink. Waiting there were Dame Kaede and the two princesses, now attractive young females and permitted to carry light swords while in the palace. They were surprised at Bizdoatl's new appearance as a half Scubausuc, much more handsome than they had ever seen him. But their disappointment was obvious when he introduced Doable as his mate. Kaede got right to the point in asking him what an Overlord was. After he explained it to her, she said her other self would be thrilled if she could join his expedition, that is, if she could get a better sword and equipment. Her current world was fun for a time, but it does not have enough challenging fights.

Various other noblemen and women of indeterminate power took the opportunity for an informal introduction, their approach being from far enough away for Dame Kaede to give Bizdoatl quick summaries of their importance before they arrived. One older woman she pointed out as a real power behind the emperor, who acted under the pretense of being his trusted courtesan, unlikely because of their age difference, where in fact she was his most brilliant and loyal adviser. Bizdoatl's circuitry meant he could perceive her intellectual genius at a distance.

She had spent a lot of time learning everything there was to know about Lur, and Bizdoatl, and had spoken at length with the Admiral, and in great detail with Dame Kaede and the two princesses about what they had experienced there. But the more she learned the more questions she had. Reaching the conclusion that Lur was essential to the health of the galaxy, but perhaps the most dangerous thing within it. Therefore every word between her and the Overlord of Lur would be the single most important conversation yet held in this young empire.

Much faster than a spoken conversation, Bizdoatl suddenly heard the voice of the virtual Master Parkdeer with a threat warning. It first said the obvious, that the threat was very intellectual, but it is concealed behind a mask of emotion. And this being knows several deadly close range fighting arts, so automatic defense responses are engaged.

She was preceded by a lesser courtier, whose purpose it was to provide introductions between dignitaries, then to remove themselves from the conversation. Her name was the Countess Ilúvatar-Segundi. Bizdoatl inquired of her name out of genuine interest, but also as a friendly way to start a conversation. Is your family related to the eru Ilúvatar? Sadly, the original eru had been destroyed even before I was born. My family were one of the founding families of Ilúvatar the Second, so adopted that name, though we now live in the capital.

So, Overlord, the court longs to hear of you and your beautiful mate, and your world of Lur. And I doubt anyone here has ever seen such classical, high level mechanica like these. Did you have them custom made, or did you buy them? Bizdoatl was surprised, as he had long seen Ell Redoubt and Chielena Lethe as the closest thing to living beings. It irritated him for her to see them as things.

My apologies, he said, does your court not have self-aware mechanica? Oh, no, she replied, none of our mechanica has ever been more than just a mechanica. I'm not sure it would be safe to have such things in the palace. So Bizdoatl asked Ell Redoubt and Chielena Lethe over to speak with her, ignoring Twell that she perhaps assumed was a living being. Her demeanor changed so much that the virtual Master Parkdeer flashed an additional warning.

Then Bizdoatl beckoned to one of the princesses. He knew that Dame Kaede kept them informed, and that they were smart and followed the workings of the imperial court closely, so knew exactly what was going on. The princess dropped much of her formal facade and acted like she was seeing old friends, all smiles and boldly walking past Bizdoatl and embracing Chielena, gushing about how they had missed them, then giving an embrace to Ell before asking if they were married yet and had any children?

The Countess wore as mask of utter surprise. Married?, she asked. It's a Lurian custom, the princess said, a more formal way of mating. The Countess was baffled. In her time she had only seen two or three level 6 mechanica, like Chielena, and none as advanced as Ell, though both were obviously oriented to extreme combat, despite outward appearances.

The princess then spoke again to say that she and her sister, with Dame Kaede had great fun in sparring matches on Lur, and Chielena and Ell were the nicest beings they have ever met. The Countess then said wait, you said children? Oh yes, they have both been upgraded to have living children. We knew many mechanica children of many kinds and hybrids of kinds in our palace, and they were very loyal and hard working. Some had even earned noble titles. Extraordinary, said the Countess. But then realizing that she had been distracted from speaking with Bizdoatl, she asked him what was entailed in your becoming the Overlord of Lur? And while she thought she was well informed on the subject, his brief recap was such that she felt woefully ignorant. Especially because of the detailed records of the Lurian project that were accessible. She easily had the authority to have a hundred scholars review and explain them to her, which is what she then intended for them to do. However, time had run out and the formal presentation to the royals was due. Herald didn't tag along, having become enthralled with the elaborate buffet.

Bizdoatl kept a very orderly face despite his surprise at meeting the emperor, who appeared an older adolescent in age, quite muscular and strong, and looking uncomfortable on the throne. Beside him on her own throne sat the empress, who was just a young child, but looked much more relaxed on her seat.

To the emperor's other side and back a step stood Countess Ilúvatar-Segundi, whose gaze at the court was no longer comfortable and friendly, but piercing and determined. A protocol officer then announced Bizdoatl's party to the emperor. Technically a herald himself, he was puzzled why he should announce another leader's herald.

The greatest interest from the court was with Bizdoatl and Doable, as Overlord of Lur and his mate. Twell Miergo, there in his mechanica form, Ell Redoubt and Chielena. As with the court herald, the nobles were also perplexed by herald and his informal attire. After some pleasantries, the emperor proposed that the assembled take in a relaxed lunch and discuss issues of state, while apologizing for the empress who would not be in attendance as she was fatigued.

Bizdoatl was pleased that some of the food provided had Lurian spices though he had no idea how it had been arranged, though he suspected Twell's actions. The emperor said he wanted to hear all about Bizdoatl's adventures on Lur, but in truth he wanted to talk about his family, who had long been adventurers and explorers. He thought himself unfortunate, because after going through grueling training to be an adventurer, it was discovered that he possessed emperor-grade magic. And this diverted him from the path he wanted, to one he had to take because of what he was. Sadly, even he agreed that all would be worse off if he refused to rule.

His empress had it easier, he supposed, since she was raised from infancy to be a high ranking noble, and though she might have other dreams, she could not pursue them for long. He supposed they still loved each other, if only out of duty. Much of what the emperor was feeling had been contained, since there had been no one before Bizdoatl who was close enough in rank to confide in, and expressing ones feelings to a subordinate was frowned upon.

But what the emperor would never have suspected was that Bizdoatl was probably the only being around who could actually do something about his predicament. So after the others there were involved in side discussions, Bizdoatl made the emperor an offer.

What if there was a device that made a perfect reproduction of you to reign as emperor here, while your original appearance was modified enough so that no one would recognize you, and you were free to go explore and on adventures? You would actually get to use your emperor magic instead of just to have it.

The emperor was very interested. He asked if two individuals accompany him, reproductions of Countess Ilúvatar-Segundi and Dame Kaede. Would a version of them both about your age be acceptable, assuming their same knowledge and abilities?, asked Bizdoatl.

Once the reproduction was on the throne, the emperor would join them at their accommodation in the capital with the new identity of Imparat-Segundi, a very powerful mage from a distant and unfamiliar world, and mate of Ilúva-Segundi, whose daughter was Kaede-Segundi, both of whom were extremely gifted swordswomen, carrying blades never before seen. Adventurers joining the exploration party of Bizdoatl, the Overlord of Lur.

Reproductions of the mechanica forms of Ell Redoubt, level seven, and Chielena Lethe, now also upgraded to level seven, and the level unknown Twell Miergo, as well as reproductions of two extremely imposing Felideer, and reproductions of two little children just called Anye and Dake, a pair of Lurians from Pronoea, named Donar and Ziu, that came highly recommended as backwoodsmen from the away Bizdoatl, and a very relaxed male who didn't seem special at all, other than being a gourmand and chef, named Herald, rounded out the party.

Admiral Isstil hoped to show off his new ship to them, and maybe shuttle them to their destination, when he turned up at their accommodation, and was disappointed to be told by a domestic mechanica that they had already left.

Bizdoatl and his team arrived in a spacious port area within a floating city above the first world they were set to explore. They were greeted by a large team of very exotic looking beings. Their spokesman, self described as an arch-devil, explained that before coming to this city as servants to eight omnipotent beings, it was said they had all been virtual creations, but on coming here had been made real and living beings. They sorely missed their masters, who were no longer around, and worthy visitors come here only very rarely.

We offer you the use of our city, and and the city on the ground beneath this one, and our services if you wish to remain here, or support for you if you wish to travel anywhere on this world. On glancing out the spacious windows, all Bizdoatl saw in any direction were deserts, but on asking, he was informed that only a small part of this world was desert, and much of the rest was verdant forest, grasslands and plains, with mountainous regions, swamps and seas. There are also many cities and many different beings.

And what of magic?, he asked. There are two kinds of very different character. The first kind was the natural magic here, but it was superseded by omnipotent beings that came here even before our masters. We know very little of these old ones, but our masters also used and taught the new magic, which can be used by anyone who can use magic, not just the few kinds that could use the old magic.

This set Bizdoatl to think. He remembered that back when doing virtual simulations, he had sent a group of six Lurian gamers, five of which were mortal, to see if they would follow the same pattern as did the simulations. They did, with that five dying of old age. So a second group of eight Lurian gamers were sent to the same place, wherever that was. But there was no follow up on them because the Lurians on Lur carried out a reassortment and his team had to evacuate.

When speaking of this with Doable, she remembered that the eight players had killed each other off, even after gate had provided them with an elaborate base, so it was decided that the best option might be sending just individual players in a base they were familiar with, along with realized virtual character support. Gate had been given instructions for this, but we were interrupted and had to leave. During a reassortment, Lurians might not be suitable for transference, so would gate transfer someone like the targeted individual from some other world, for the same purpose?

Assuming this was the target world for all three transfers, would the individual still be around? Because he would not necessarily be a Lurian, Bizdoatl assumed that gate would have given him maximum magical power, items and wealth to succeed here. But we should check up on him, to see how a non-Lurian could adapt to a situation like this.

But first we must get things orderly here, in this floating base. Few of the formerly virtual beings here required food or sleep, so spent their time cleaning and maintaining the base, and guarding some realized game items left here. So while there were well tended sleeping areas, the kitchen was pretty bare. Once the gate console was set up, gate reproduced a substantial amount of the local coinage, so they could buy food from the city on the ground. Only later did Bizdoatl think that they just could have asked gate to provide them prepared food, but then said to himself that exploring means trying new things.

The beings in the city on the ground were a diverse lot, many different kinds, so were not disturbed by them especially after finding out they were travelers, with money to spend. And that is when the swords came out, not to fight, but to sell. The floating city was known for manufacturing some very high quality swords, an essential item on this semi-civilized world, Bizdoatl assumed, and had an establish reputation. So the city on the ground had an abundance of swords that were 'almost as good' as the swords from the floating city, or so said the sellers. But they did have an eye for quality, and several offered to buy the unique swords of the Segundi family, which were politely declined.

Very skilled at court politics, Imparat, Ilúva, and Kaede were amazing at gathering and collating useful intelligence without seeming to be nosy, especially indirectly, such as when haggling the sale of exotic trinkets of which they had an endless supply, the merchant would be fixated on the sale, so would give them the information for free.

One of the more important discoveries was that something about this world magically brought about the spawning of very large numbers of undead. Most of the party were unfamiliar with such things, so Twell informed them of the details. The assumption is that at some point a gate had changed the rules of a given world to rationalize it with a game. An animate skeleton seems ludicrous, and those that arose from actual dead remains were a minority, so if unavailable, then the world itself would generate them.

It also explained why, at this level of technology, swords were so popular, as likely any magical tools for eliminating undead. But what effect would this have on the decay rate of magic on this world thought Bizdoatl. He asked Twell about the calculation used to determine this, and could it calculate the rate of this new world. He replied that he believed he could, but that a large part of it was based in change over time, so it could not be done quickly, so he would start now.

Bizdoatl's next inquiry was to gate on Lur, through its console. Could it direct him to the location of this world's gate. It replied that it could, but it was not recommended that anyone travel there at this time. It is located in a very deep cave in a mountain range and it is not alone there. The cave is also being used as a nest for a very powerful dragon.

Bizdoatl then asked gate what a dragon was, and gate responded by telling him a library of information about various types of dragons, simple and lizard like, midsized, giant and violent or highly intelligent, colors and scale patterns, many kinds that were virtually designed and bred, raised and transferred, and soon Bizdoatl regretted asking. So he interrupted gate and asked what kind of dragon was this dragon.

Giant, intelligent, old, with a great reservoir of natural magic. Approach with caution. So he asked for a flying remote communications device that could translate between his speech and that of the dragon. And having awakened the dragon from a sound sleep, he soon had to request another such device, as the first one had been swatted like a small insect.

It took a while to convince the dragon that they were not from this world, bore him no ill will, did not covet his impressive collection of valuables, nor intended to disclose his location to those that might. But the real breakthrough happened when Bizdoatl learned of his fascination with breeding rare kinds of beings, and even cross breeding them to produce new and noteworthy kinds.

We have the means to do that in many cases, even of seemingly incompatible beings. Bizdoatl used himself as one example, and his mate Doable as another. The dragon sounded fascinated. She was a purely mechanical being? Only to some extent. She was a very complicated mechanical being called a mechanica, which are very much like living beings in many ways. She was first made into a living being, and then one that was a blend of two normally very incompatible kinds. Extraordinary, he remarked.

It was the icebreaker that convinced the dragon that he had to meet these beings. He eventually offered to transmute into the form of an ordinary being, were they to come pay him a visit. Bizdoatl's counter offer was for him to transmute, then they could bring him to where they were, in the floating city. He agreed and was so impressed after speaking with them for several star cycles about the galaxy, and enjoying the food and drink provided by Herald, that he said he was seriously considering giving up his life as recluse and ask them to let him join their party.

However, having lived here for so long, and having seen so many of its mysteries, he was of the opinion the ancient ones who lived here had discovered that the way to counter magical decay was with the natural spawning of undead. It buffered and limited the magical barrier, so that the native beings were unable to use most higher level magic. But outsiders from other worlds would be, by comparison, as strong as gods.

In their absence, for better or worse, I find this world rather dull, and suggest better exploration in the next world on your list. After using remote observation and watching the various nations brawl with each other, Bizdoatl agreed, and after accepting several exotic beings from the floating city to their team, they moved on to their next adventure.


End file.
